


LIBRARY OF CX)NGRESS 



DDDD5HaE103 







PHILADELPHIA 



MERCHANTS, 

AS CONSTITUTED FIFTY @ SEVENTY YEARS AGO, 

ILLUSTRATED BY DIAGRAMS OF THE RIVER FRONT, 
AND 

POETRAITS OF SOME OF ITS PROMINENT OCCUPANTS. 

TOGETHER WITH 

SKETCHES OF CHAEACTER, 

AND 

INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTKS OF THE DAY. 



ABEAHAM RITTER, 

AUTHOR OP "the HISTORY OP THE MORAVIAN CHURCH IN PHILADELPHIA." 



\ 



18 



ftr^ 



^ PHILADELPHIA: 
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 

1860. 
Copyright secured according to Law. 






\fT- 



PEEFACE. 



Justice to authorship, and inteUigence to the patron, 
have always claims upon the writer for a declaration, or 
an eclaircissement of the intent and purpose of a literary 
offering ; but more especially in a work of historical pre- 
tensions, where authority for its records, or reliable 
tradition for its current incidents and anecdotes, may 
justly be a subject for the bar of inquisition; but 
though fearless of interrogatories, and even careless of 
criticism, it is but meet to clear the way to the volume, 
and show cause for effort, purpose, and effect. 

The downhill of life is not always the decline of 
spirit. Old folks are apt to mount the throne of retro- 
spect, and rejuvenate and play their early games over 
and over again; and not unlike Goldsmith's broken 
soldier, — 

"Shoulder the cratch, and show how fields were won." 

The past to us is as the present, and even more pic- 
turesque. It is Uke the sugar at the bottom of the cup, 
and needs but the stir of the lever of reference to 
sweeten the beverage of reflection; whilst the reflection 

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4 PEEFACE. 

itself, is a tinge to the yellow leaf of the Oak of Time, 
renewing the verdure of the sapling of its infancy. 

Hence, then, a retrospect of Philadelphia and her 
Merchants, as they moved the waters and enlivened the 
land some seventy years ago, rise before me, redolent 
of the fragrance of the blossom, the bloom, and the 
flower of the mercantile life of my early times. 

But with all my claims to the prerogative of graphic 
imprint, acknowledgments are due to collateral testi- 
mony, artistic skill, and mind and matter beyond my 
own. 

Firstly, then, my diagraphic display is from the quick 
conception and accurate delineation of my friend, Edwin 
F. Durang, Esq., a valuable, and very talented, and taste- 
ful architect of our city. Whose conception, from descrip- 
tion of intent and purpose, is certainly unsurpassed ; of 
whom it is but common justice to say, that he is as 
quick with the pencil as thought is to the mind, de- 
veloping description as though the original were before 
him ; all of which renders me, happily, safe in the drafts 
before you, especially as they have been tested by au- 
thority and linked by reliable tradition. 

But mercantile life is set forth, and data, in dots and 
lines, is given, and whence the authority for that % To 
memory I appeal, and from it reveal the secrets from 
the recesses of sunken time. 

Cradled in the very centre of my scope, growing and 
familiarizing with the life of my times, the things that 
were, charm the mental eye to the compass of the 



PREFACE. 5 

things that are. Memory lifts her pages, delivers her 
record with impressive force, and gives to the pen the 
eye of the mind.* Pardon me ! I would not be egotis- 
tic — that would illy befit me — whilst memories com- 
bined, lateral and collateral, have given impetus to the 
work and identity to its portraiture. 

There are antiquarians amongst us — venerable relics 
of the olden time — and happily so, for, but for such, 
even Moses and the prophets had slept unwept and 
unsung. Honor then to whom honor belongs. 

Our venerable townsman, Mr. Charles Massey, is a 
veteran of time ; and now, in his eighty-second year, is 
intelligent and elastic, with a well-regulated and well- 
stored mind, and a memory like a very chronicle. 
How could I be egotistic, after untrammeled intercourse 
with, and heavy drafts upon his tenacious memory. 

Mr. Massey has evidently trained himself to observa- 
tion, to plant results in his garden of reminiscence ; 
whence also he has allowed me to cull the flowers of 
his mnemonic fancy, and perfume the page of accumu- 
lating history. 

In process of this work, therefore, he has been a 
valuable adjunct, and his memory tested by comparison. 
Land-marks, and even history itself, emboldens me to 
present it as a reliable issue to the world and its biblio- 
theque. But enough! this old gentleman must appear 
in the vigor of his manhood, and the role of mercantile 

* The Baron von Hnmboldt recently said, that History, or " Descrip- 
tion," must be " written with the eyes." 



6 PREFACE. 

life, in the body of this work, and there we may greet 
him as an active spirit of his day. 

When I began the work, however, I intended it 
merely as an Appendix to another reminiscent gathering 
of larger growth — a cursory review of local familiarities 
of my youth ; but matter grew and forced itself upon 
me, even to the generation of a History; and being en- 
couraged by older and abler heads than my own, ambi- 
tion took the hint, spurred exertion, and inspired the 
effort to do right whatever was worth doing at all. 
Wherefore, whipping up my recollections, and propi- 
tiating the good-will of my abettors, due diligence I 
trust will show itself in the issue. 

Notwithstanding all of this, " errors, omissions, and 
exceptions" may possibly be charged upon your author ; 
but let the milk of human kindness mollify the criticism, 
and the vail of forbearance darken the counsel that 
cannot see the difficulties of perfection in all human 
efforts. 



CONTENTS. 



Preface, . " 9 

Illustrations, , . . . 15 

Introduction, 17 

CHAPTER I. 

Introductory — The Carrying Trade, and the principal operators 

inlt, . . . ....... 19 

CHAPTER II. 

The Hill of Callowhill street, and a view of the Wharves from 

this point to Arch street, 24 

CHAPTER III. 

The Wharves and their Tenants, from Arch to Market — Sharon 

Carter — His Cooper-shop — The Old Ferry, .... 29 

CHAPTER IV. 

Wharves — Market to Chestnut — Occupants — Crooked Billet — 

Fatal to Isaac Jones — Death of John Clark, ... 33 

CHAPTER Y. 

The Wharves — Chestnut to Walnut — Occupants — Tun Alley — 

India Wharf— The United States Frigate Alliance, . . 37 

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8 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Wharves and occupants from Walnut to Dock streets — 
Ross's Wharf — Hamilton's Wharves and Stores — The Old 
Fish-Market on Dock street, 40 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Wharves — Spruce to South street — Occupants, ... 44 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Streets — Little Water and Penn streets — Jehu Hollingsworth — 
John Swanwick — Jacob Gerard Koch— Willings & Francis 
— M. H. Messchert — Samuel Rhodes — Daniel Dolby — Sketch 
of Joseph Dolby, Sexton of Christ Church — Nixon & Walker, 48 

CHAPTER IX. 

Water street — Pine to Dock — And Spruce to Walnut — Joseph 
Sims — Joseph Johnson — Snowden & North — Jesse & Robert 
Wain 53 

CHAPTER X. 

Water street continued — Walnut to Chestnut — Site of the Mari- 
ners' Church — Samuel Allen — Mathias Keely — Isaac Hazel- 
hurst — Reed & Ford — John Wilcox — John Welsh^Charles 
Massey — Eyre & Massey — Ancestry of Charles Massey, . 57 

CHAPTER XI. 

Water street — Chestnut to Market — John Skyren — Joseph An- 
thony — Thomas Pryor — Charles Massey — Buckridge Sims — 
Paul Beck — Petit & Bayarde— Rumford Dawes — Negus's 
Ferry— Jacob Clement— Bankson Taylor— William Newell 
John Culin, * . . . 65 



CONTENTS. 9 

CHAPTER Xir. 

Water street — Market to Arcli — Bohl Boblen — B. & J. Bolilen — 
Thomas Leiper — Louis Oroussilat — Stephen Girard — De- 
scription of his Mansion — Samuel Y. Anderson — Crooks 
Stevenson — G. & H. Calhoun — Samuel Crawford — Smith & 
"Wood — Smith & Eidgway — Job Butcher — Robeson & Paul 
—John Clark, 70 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Water street — Arch to Race — Isaac Austin, at the corner — 
Isaac Wainwright — William Peddle — Timothy Paxson — 
Latimer & Murdock — J. Vanuxem — Steinmetz — Major 
Hodgdon — Huron — Goldsmith — Elder — Summerl & Brown 
— Andrew Hodge — Dr. Hodge — Henry Pratt — Wilson, boat 
builder — Eugan & Rhodes — James Crawford — John Warder 
& Son — Harvey & Davis — Capt. Davis, ... 81 

CHAPTER XIV, 

Water street — Race to Yine — Yine to Callowhill — Thomas Ali- 
bone — Boyer Brooks — Robert McKean — Dutihl & Wach- 
smuth — Daniel Thunn — Abraham Piesch — Jacob Bright — 
Endress's Brewery — George Campbell — John Britton — Jo- 
seph Thomas — West & Jeanes — William West, of the above 
firm — Brown's Biscuit Bakery — Stewart & Knight, Lumber 
Merchants 8G 

CHAPTER XT. 

Front street — East side — Callowhill to Yine — Christlieb Bart- 
ling — Manuel Eyre — Clawson's Tavern — Durham Boats — 
Joseph Morehane — His School-House, .... 89 

CHAPTER XYL 

Front street — West side — Callowhill to Yine— A Black Bear 
Tavern — Isaac W. Norris — Isaiah Jeanes — Capt. James 



10 CONTENTS. 

King— Jos. Copperthwaite — " Bully White" — Daniel Bacon 
—William West— Fitch's Steamboat, 1788, ... 95 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Front street — East side — Vine to Race — Isaac Jones — Abraham 
Piesch — John Wharton — William Fling, Senior & Junior — 
Peter Brown — Praise Woodman, 100 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Front street — West side — Vine to Race — Stackhouse — Starr — 
William Rush — Rebecca Inksom — Jacob Wayne — John B. 
Ackley — Sol. Park — George Vanderslice — Robert Bethel — 
General Irvine — Peter Maisson — Bashy Marshall — William 
Eigby — John Stille, Jr. — Bowyer Brookes — Rebecca Jones 
— Rosanna, and her daughter Mary Donnel, . . . 103 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Front street — East side — Race to Arch — Christian's Biscuit 
Bakery — John Keffer — Pattison Hartshorne — Agent of the 
Bavarian Republic — Simon Probasco — Richard Folwell — 
Jacob Martin — Nathaniel Bayne — William Bowen — Isaac 
Wainwright — Melchoir Wisiuger — His Wife — Peter Dala- 
mar — Joseph Brittin — John Scurlog, .... Ill 

CHAPTER XX. 

Front street — West side — Race to Arch — Charles Cavender — 
Dr. Alberti — Abraham Kintzing — Henry Pratt's Dwelling 
— Thomas Pratt — Matthew Pratt — Henry Drinker — Archi- 
bald Gardner — Richard Wall — Christian Hahu — Ephraim 
Haines — Henry Slesman — John Skyren — Sharon Carter — 
Joe Banjo — John Webb — " Old Katy" — Henry Dankel — 
Godfrey Seveke — Gilbert Gaw — Michael Larer — Carpenter's 
Trenton Stage Office — John Inskeep — Alexander James 
Dallas — Samuel W. Fisher — Nathan Field — Benjamin Olden 
— My Own Homestead — Incidents of the Time, . . . 116 



CONTENTS. 11 

CHAPTER XXI. 

A Stray Chapter. — The Corner of Front and Arch streets — 
Hahn & Spohn — Peter Hahn — Destruction of the Premises 
— Mary Sowerby — Savage Stillwell — Thomas Cumpson — 
John Claxton — James C. Fisher — Dr. Oathrall — Ambrose 
Vasse — Samuel Allen — William Gibbs — Dickey Folwell — 
Benjamin Thaw — Hannah January — Benjamin R. Morgan — 
Doctor Physic — John Biddle — Louis Gilliams — Frederick 
Hailer — John Coburn — Gustavus Eisberg — Samuel Weth- 
erill, Jr. — Brummige — Humbert Droz, . . . • . . 128 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Front street — East side — Arch to Market — Samuel Wetherill, 
the Yenerable Sire of the Fourth-rising Generation of that 
Family — John M. Taylor — Nothnagel & Montmollen — Saviel 
— Joshua Lippincot — Girard — Time of his Death, . . 137 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

Front street — Arch to Market continued — George Thomas — 
Sansom — Guest & Bancker — Samuel Archer — Jos. Cooper 
— Jane Taylor of the Golden Lamb — William Hemble — Paul 
Brown — Henry Tremper — Hannah Holland — William R. 
Thompson — John T. Sullivan — George Frederick Boyer, . 144 

CHAPTER XXIT. 

Front street — West side — Arch to Market — The Hattery of 
Joel Gibbs — Thomas Peacock — Comegys — William Lippin- 
cot — Conrad Keller — Harvey & Worth — John Folwell — 
John Morrel — Thomas Wotherspoon — James Arrot — Solo- 
mon White — Widdifield— Cox — Gerhard — Isaac Norris — 
Wishard's Tallow Chandlery — Joseph Shoemaker — Edward 
Rowley, . . . • 151 



12 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXY. 

Front street — East side — Market to Chestnut — Ephraira, Benja- 
min and Ellis Clark — John Vernou — James McCrea — John 
McCrea — C. P. Roussel — Shoemaker & Berrel — John Gill — 
Daniels & Phillips — John Hood — Patrick Moore — Blair 
McClenechan — Joshua B. Bond — Joseph E. Tatem — Tarras- 
con & Journel — Brugiere & Tessiere — James Duval, . . 158 

CHAPTER XXYI. 

Front street— West side — Market to Chestnut — James Stokes — 
Thomas Bradford — John Moss — John Taylor — John Straw- 
bridge — Joseph Magoffin & Son — Benjamin Nones — Wil- 
liam Hunt — Anthony Kennedy — Meeker, Cochran & Co. — 
John Field — Joseph D. Drinker — James Todd — William 
Mott— Mazurie & Homaffel— Donath— The Post Office- 
John Thompson — John Stille, Sr. — Alexander Henry, . 162 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

Front street — East side — Chestnut to Walnut — Ephraim Clark 
— Peter S. Duponceau — Richard Footman — N. McVicker 
— Loup — Walker — Reed — Ford — Rubb — Frazier — Joseph 
— Roberts — His General Appearance and Character — Thomas 
—Biggs— J. McCauley, 168 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Front street — West side — Chestnut to Walnut — Pattison Harts- 
horne — Ebenezer Large — Sitgreaves — Orr^ — Evans — Fox — 
Robert Smith — John Elliot — William Geisse — Dr. Griffiths 
■ — John Dixon — Jonathan Fell — Daniel King — John Con- 
nelly — Samuel Coates — Roberts Vaux, 172 

CHAPTER XXIX, 

Front street — East side — Walnut to Spruce — The Insurance 
Company of North America — Institution and Officers — John 
Vaughn — Edward Carrol — Isaac Wharton — David Lewis — 



CONTENTS. 13 

Tribute to Francis Wharton — Odier & Bousquet — Louis 
Glaises — The Custom-House, 1795 — Its Officers — Owner of 
the Premises — Eoss & Simpson — Liudo — Bringhurst — Hen- 
derson — Davy — Eoberts — Doran — Buckley — Gilpins — Char. 
Wharton, 177 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Front street — West side — Walnut to Spruce — Robert Ralston — 
Miers Fisher — David H. Cunningham — J. M. Nesbit — 
Stewart — Barr — Blight — Dawes — Francis West — John West 
— Dr. West — Samuel E. Fisher — Mordecai Lewis — Joseph 
S. I-ewis — Sontag — John Morton — Purdon — Lowndes — Dr. 
Dorsey— Richards— J. McDowell, 183 

CHAPTER XXXL 

Front street — East side — Spruce to Pine — Gurney & Smith — 
Daniel Smith — His Sons, Eichard S., James S., Francis 
Gurney, Daniel, Charles S., and William S. — Moses Kemp- 
ton — John Jones — J. 0. Thompson, 187 

CHAPTEE XXXIL 

Front street^West side — Spruce to Pine — Doctor Harris — J, 
W, Irwin — G. Plumstead — Archibald McCall — Francis Gur- 
ney — George Sibbald — Dominick Joyce — Dr. James Mease 
— James Latimer — William Condy — M. M. Carl — Condy 
Eaquet — Chandler Price — Captain Toby, .... 191 

CHAPTEE XXXIIL 

Front street — East side — Pine to South — Ignatius Paillard — 
Francis Coppinger — Levinus Clarkson — Janes & Clark — 
Captain William Jones — Samuel Clark — John Swanwick — 
Roe Brumard — Joseph Read — S. & W. Keith— Derrick 
Peterson — Robert Bridges — Henry Mitchell— Augustine & 
John Bousquet, 1799 — And Peter Bousquet, 1805, . . 195 



14i CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXXIY. 

Front street — West side — Pine to South — George B. Dawson — 
John & Wm. Lynch — Louis Clapier — Budaraque — John La- 
tour — John Clement Stocker — John Morton — John Barclay 
— Phillip Kelly — Samuel Eeid — James Traquair, . . 198 

CHAPTER XXXY. 

Conclusion. — Review and General Remarks, .... 201 



APPENDIX. 



Jonathan Leedom — Benjamin Jones, Jun. — Robert Oakley — 
John Craig — Nicholas Biddle — George Armroyd — John 
Coulter — Samuel W. Jones — Alexander J. Derbyshire — 
CAPTAIN DAVID MOFFAT— Thomas Pratt— Origin 
and Succession of the Firm of Yorke & Lippincott — Benja- 
min W. Richards — Treasuryship of the Pennsylvania Hos- 
pital, 1780 to 1859, 209 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Portrait of Stephen Girard, Feontispiece. 

DIAGEAMS. 

Wharves — Callowhill to Yine, to face page 2^ 

" Yine to Eace, 25 

" Eace to Arch, . .26 

" Arch to Market, . 29 

" Market to Chestnut, 33 

" Chestnut to Walnut, 37 

" Walnut to Dock 40 

" Dock to Pine 44 

" Pine to South, 45 

Portrait — Thomas P. Cope, 39 

" John Welsh, 58 

" Charles Massey, Jun., 60 

Plan of Paul Beck's Proposed Improvement of the Eiver Front, . 66 

Portrait — Henry Pratt, 118 

Profile— Samuel Wetherill, (the Sire,) . 187 

Portrait — John Moss, .162 

" John Yaughn, . . . . . . . .177 

" Eobert Ealston, 183 

" Jonathan Leedom, (frontispiece to Appendix,) . . 209 



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INTEODUCTION. 



Search and researcli appears to be tlie order of the day: 
by some, tributary to the arts and sciences ; by others, to 
political, polemical, or professional interests ; but by others 
to a more current and familiar attachment of a link remote in 
the bosom of Time — the former, however, more the forte of 
the hey-day of an author's prime : whilst the latter, touching 
the chain of recollections, is electrified by the spark from its 
source, and the flash of even a hundred years past comes 
vividly to his eye. 

Our mortal is ever on the wane; but our immortal, jealous 
of its trust, awakes — as it were to the rescue — claims its 
throne, and spreads its rays over the fields of its existence. 
And thus lit up, the life of " the days when we were young" 
comes up in form, feature, and familiarity, greeting to the 
eye, and tangible to the very hand. 

My object in this volume is not to call up the leaden 
clouds that hung over the pursuits of legitimate industry, 
nor even tinge them with a glimmer of the ills of unfortu- 
nates — for doubtless, three o'clock P. M., was as fatal to some 
then as it is now and has been ever since — but rather to 
show, who and what constituted the mercantile community, 
and the where of its active being. 

I do not flatter myself into a phenomenon of literature, or 
2 ■ (17) 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

a competitor in historical issues, but I am liappy to know 
that I have not passed Time's ordeal to nearly threescore and 
ten in vain. I have lived, seen, and observed ; and assume 
to pen some of the results, in a review of Philadelphia and 
her Merchants of the olden time. 

This self-imposed task is not without its onus; but neither 
is it without its pleasurable incentive. Memory will fondle 
with early scenes, and impels a recueil; association spurs it 
to life, and furtherance encourages the "search and research." 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS, 



CHAPTER I. — INTRODUCTORY. 
The parrying Trade, and the principal operators in it. 

There was a time, in the end of tlie last and beginning of 
the present centurj) when the " Carrying Trade" between the 
United States and the West India Islands, was a fruitful 
source of life to the commercial interests of Philadelphia. 
Her wharves were gay with streamers, from the smallest to 
the largest floating castles of the mighty deep, signaling their 
import, receiving the fruits of our own soil or presenting to 
our use and profit the riches of the soil of other climes. 

Our intercourse with the West Indies was active, spirited, 
and rich in results; for whilst our Beef and Pork, Flour, 
Apples, Onions, Butter, Lard, and any other product of our 
fields or farms, were toothsome and desirable to the planter 
there, the issues of their soil, of Sugar, Coffee, Oranges, 
Lemons, Pine-Apples, etc., paid much better here, and laid 
the foundation of ease and comfort to very many of the 
retired dealers of that day. 

The insurrection in St. Domingo, of 1792-3, however, cre- 
ated a hiatus for a time, in the untrammeled and profitable 
intercourse of our enterprise ; but even that Avas propitious to 
the adventurer ; and although intercourse was interdicted by 

(19) 



20 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

danger of traffic, and and embargoed by the savage hatred 
of the blacks against the whites, there were some here who 
dared the gauntlet for the prize of their temerity. 

Abraham Piesch, of Swiss origin, a prominent shipping- 
merchant of the day — a man of enterprise and risks — thought 
it well to float a barge, invitingly laden, to the tj'oubled 
waters of St. Domingo, and his schooner "Fly" was forthwith 
in command for the enterprise. 

Her arrival on that coast was in common with — here and 
there — a white speck, beating to and fro, apparently upon the 
same errand, but to whom the fear of toil and danger was a 
caution, and repulsive to their schemes, for they fainted in 
courage, and faded in distance to fall into the arms of better 
security, or drop their anchors in their own roadstead. Be 
this as it may, our " Fly," true to her name, scented by the rich 
odor of the garden before her, hovered cozily on its borders 
until time and chance should offer their services. 

The massacre had been desperate and unsparing ; a single 
white man only was reserved for their business purposes, and 
him they marred and mutilated in his fingers and toes, and 
nose too, to prevent his escape and secure his services to 
whatever commercial interest might turn up. He was a 
custom-house officer and important to their use. 

Whilst the " Fly" was cruising about, and her officers spy- 
ing out the land and the harbor for a rescue from their 
anxious toil, or some medium of communication with the 
shore, Thomas Thuit, the decrepit survivor of his race 
there, was seen on his pony, pacing the sands of the shore as 
eagerly peering for supplies to their exhausted market. 

The "Fly" crept cautiously to his margin; hailing distance 
bounded his nasal tones ; the call was encouraging, and 
won upon the hard salted Captain Wallace and his timid, 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS, 21 

youthful supercargo, and the yawl was manned for a parley. 
Assurances of safety of persons and property brought the 
vessel to a proper mooring, and the very desirable cargo of 
apples, onions, lard, and various other edibles and culinary 
requirements, to an available landing. 

To sell, was but a magical moment ; and to buy, but the 
question of time to load. 

Impromptu, coffee at five cents per pound was poured like 
sand into the hold of the craft, until the water washed her 
gunwales, and compelled her crew to creep over and wade 
through the bean to their bunks. She was loaded in bulk. 
Her return was joyous to her enterprising owner, and vastly 
cheering to the competitors in the West India trade. 

This story I give as the party in interest and activity gave 
it often in my hearing, fifty years ago, to wit : the super- 
cargo, Jacob Bitter, Jr. 

Eich as was the West India trade, we had even more to 
boast of. Europe, Asia, China, and Africa were represented 
at our margin by their merchandise. The towering masts 
of the dignified merchantmen betold their presence ; and the 
" Yo, heave ho !" of the merry mariner heralded the delivery 
of their treasures. 

The "Voltaire," the "Eousseau,"the "Helvetius," the "Mon- 
tesquieu," or the "Good Friend," in turn called the attention 
of our indefatigable Grirard; and the independent wag of 
his head, and corresponding obedience of his queue, were duly 
present at the contributions to his wealth. Hemp, spun or 
unspun, raw or wrought and bar-iron, were commodities to 
sharpen, if possible, the already bright eye of their owner, to 
investigation, calculation and profit. 

But he had other ways and means to fortune. Amongst 



22 PHILADELPHIA AXD HER MEEGHANTS. 

other shavings of nature, he discounted the dawn, and 
eclipsed it with Solomon's suggestion, " early to rise." 

There Avere neither "steamboats" nor "telegraphs" to 
hasten news of arrivals below ; the West India craft came up 
often by night, silently and softly, and the plash of their 
anchor died away on the circle of its making, 

Girard, true to the proverb, taking daylight at its dawn, 
would slip from his gate to the wharf's edge, and sweep the 
Delaware with the besom of his powerful eye. An arrival at 
hand, or afar off, telegraphed itself to his vision, and fired his 
impulse to board the object of his search ; and forthwith a 
" wherry," or a " batteau," laid alongside ; and whilst his 
neighbors w.ere dreaming of bargain and sale, he was making 
himself master of the market by his coup de main. 

Our Henry Pratt, Pratt & Kinesing, Willings & Francis, 
Smith & Eidgway, James Yanuxem, Gurney & Smith, Jacob 
Gerard Koch, Summer & Brown, Louis Crousillat, Eja^e & 
Massey, Piesch, Blight, Montgomery, Sims, and other mer- 
cantile wharf life, were all, in due course, at their respective 
posts, with their capacious ships breasting the docks or 
lining the outer edge of the wharf 

And this active life was enlivened by the music of the 
jolly tar, or the swarthy operator at the derrick. 

Jack seemed to take the rattlmgs by surprise, and in a 
trice was in the cradle at the yard-arm, to bend or unbend 
the weighty canvas as duty required, and drop the significant 
" Aye, aye, sir," to the commanding ofi&cer below ; whilst the 
negro song at the capstan or the derrick, echoed from wharf 
to wharf, until the south answered to the north, and the 
north continued to blend. a cheerful response. 

But there was even more cheering music than this to the 
eager ear of the expecting merchant. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 23 

The booming of a "big gun," five miles below, was the 
sure announcement of the safe arrival of an "East Indiaman," 
to which the non-interested, as well as the parties in interest, 
gave prompt heed. And men and boys, from all quarters, 
flew to the wharf to see the smoke and the flash as the " big 
ship" turned the point, and inquire "What ship is that?" 

A gladsome sound from yonder Jersey shore, 

Repeats the cheer of India's guest below ; 
The echo rings ! and men, just boys before, 

Fly to the wharf to glimpse the flashing bow. 

Oh ! glorious times of innocence and mirth, 

Unsmok'd, unsteam'd, the good ship seeks her berth ; 

In dignity she sweeps the silv'ry stream, 

Erst Neptune's toy, but now the merchant's theme!* 

* New York was not our rival in those days. The " Park" was the boundary 
on the north, and the "Battery" was her lion on the south. Pearl street and 
Wall street were her emporiums of trade, whilst " Broadway" was the un- 
trammeled highway for funeral pageant and military parade ; and its side- 
walk the inviting course to the several churches that then gave tone and 
character to its skirts. But her harbor, north and east, was the nest of 
small craft, better known by the stems that streaked the horizon than by the 
hulls that bore them. 

In the fall of 1815, I saw the city and the port as above set forth. I saw 
a funeral procession pass up the middle of "Broadway," from below the 
"Park," unlet of wagon, cart, or dray, or any thing whatever beyond an 
occasional gig or pleasure wagon. 

New Yoi"k did not begin to develope till about the year 181 C, when several 
of our principal silk houses and others went there on account of her open 
harbor during the winter, affording free ingress and egress to her commer- 
cial requirements. 

Amongst the first of our emigrants, was the silk and ribbon house of Bru 
giere & Tessicre, from Market above Sixth street. 



24 THILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 



CHAPTEE II. 

The Hill of Callowhill Street, and a view of the Wharves from Callo-whill to 

Arch street. 

In reviewing the wharves from this point, I must first show 
up the hill and its appendages that led to the level below, not 
because there was any thing great there, but rather because 
dust and ashes have been increased by the incumbrance of 
that soil. 

There was, on the north side of the hill, a yiest or range of 
dirty-yellow frames, continuous from near Water street to the 
wharf, variously occupied by groggeries, boarding and lodging 
places, provision dealers, etc., where also hucksters congregated 
at night to rafflle off their unsold poultry. The structure was 
antique and doubtless original, a very firstling of the ISTorthern 
Liberties. 

The wharves from this point were not as regular, free, and 
open as those below. Many of them, were enclosed and could 
not be passed without passing up one alley and down another ; 
but they were no less important. 

Britton's wharf took up a large space from the corner, 
southward, and was characterized as a ship-building point. 

Taylor's dock was useful to the bath and revival of the 
jaded horse, as well as a pool for the boys to lave their fevered 
skin. 

West's wharf was the recipient of countless loads of salt, 



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PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 25 

whilst Servoss and Shoemaker told off their income by 
numberless barrels of flour. 

"Wood and lumber, however, occupied an occasional inter- 
mediate wharf, and made up the measure of this line.^ more 
particularly defined in the annexed diagram. 

The upper side of Vine-street wharf was graced with a very 
dirty dock, an original "bite" or harbor for wood shallops and 
other small craft, to load or unload, north or south ; but it 
served also as another watering convenience for horses, being 
open to the street for their descent. But it was a muddy limb 
of the river, and, except at high tide, more to be avoided than 
desired. 

Its adjunct was a wood wharf, and being a "good way up 
town," wood was supposed to be cheaper on Yine-street 
wharf than anywhere below ; and the " Corder" was the re- 
corder of profit by the result. 

Lumber was landed at the south corner of Vine-street wharf, 
in the rear of John Britton's board-yard ; and Eyre & Mas- 
sey loaded their ship "Portia" here with lumber for Madeira, 
1806. 

After John Souder, at 141, William Flintham succeeded 
him in the premises as well as an oak-cooper as an extensive 
dealer in flaxseed, of which he shipped large quantities to Ire- 
land, 1807. 

Mr. Flintham was a very active and intelligent man, whose 
mechanical trade could not confine his genius ; and passing 
from the cooper-shop to the counting-house, entered more ex- 
tensively in the shipping business, but alas, in fine, not to 
profit. 

A little below this the more active mercantile line began, 
and Bright, Piesch, Smith, Thunns, Dutihl & "Wacks- 
muth, and others, were prominently located adjacent to their 



26 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

sliipping interests on the wharf, or in the stream immediately 
before them. 

Mercantile life was still more rife in the wharf line from 
Eace to Arch streets. 

A ship-chandlery is always important to shipping interests, 
and Harvey & Davis, at the corner, were beneficiaries of 
this fact ; but Henry Pratt, Pratt & Kintzing, Hodge, Sum- 
merl & Brown, down to Smith's alley, were very much of the 
active business life of this limit. There was, however, an 
ancient appendage to the convenience of this part in a block 
of frames of red hue, called therefore the " Ped Stores." They 
stood in the middle of a pier, having a passage around them, 
and were used by Summerl & Brown, for storage, or any 
other convenience to their shipping requirements."^ A full 
share of the wealth of the Indies, east and west, very often 
made a beautiful show on these wharves, of which, more par- 
ticularly, our venerable contemporary, William Smith, was 
a bounteous recipient. 

Mr. Smith was, or had been, a West India planter, though 
an Englishman by birth, but an owner of large domains in 
the West Indies, from which his income was very abundant. 
On his arrival in this country, he landed eighty thousand 
dollars in silver, (Spanish dollars), from which he derived his 
souhnquei of Silver Heels — but he was as often called " Gold- 

* The Yellow Fever of 1793, first made, its appearance here. The first 
victims were, 1st, Mrs. Maria Lemaigre, (widow of Peter Lemaigre, merchant, 
of 77 North Water street, 1793) a French lady; 2d, the stevedore of the 
ship that brought it to that wharf; and 3d, Mr. Wm. Burkhard, of 57 North 
Water street. 

In after time, these " Red Stores" were the daily haunt of our former 
townsman, the father of our present Isaac Elliot, of Walnut street, convey- 
ancer, who was the first Inspector of Bark of this port, under the appointment 
of Governor McKean. 



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PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANT&. 27 

smitli," to which his tall slim figure, dressed in black, with 
knee-breeches, silk stockings and shining shoes, mounted with 
good sized silver buckles, seemed to entitle him. His digni- 
fied ascent of Arch Street Hill, and his general appearance, 
belongs to the history of his times. 

In this immediate vicinity, our still existent, Francis 
Jacoby, has claims to notice as a shipping merchant of the 
day, having in 1807 and onward, been an active and exten- 
sive item of the commercial list. 

James Yanuxem was not amongst the least of mercantile 
prowess in this quarter ; nor is the continuous business life of 
Timothy Paxson, a well and widely known dealer in flour 
to be passed in silence.* Nor yet Wm. Peddle's yard to his 
cooper-shop, as a spot of busy scenes in these times of mer- 
cantile prosperity. His domain and Isaac Wainwright's 
dock, and block and pump-maker shop, shut off the mercan- 
tile continuance here. And whilst Peddle often held this 
wharf to his own use, though a great big ship did lay before 
it, Wainwright divided the course to the ferry below by his 
inlet for logs, which, whilst it served him to soak his timbers, 
it very often soaked ours, as the treacherous logs rolled or slid 
us into the dock as we tried our skill in running over them 
from wharf to wharf. 

''Come away to Billy Cooper's !" was the ring of the boat- 
man's song, as he passed leisurely from the porch of Isaac 
Smallwood's ferry house, at the corner, to his " wherry" at 
the slip below ; whilst the " horse boat"f rolled heavily under 

* The prominent and equally respectable house of Latimer & Murdock, 
flour merchants. 

f As before observed, "steamboats" were not in being in those days. The 
"horse boat" was a capacious affair — was drawn up to a convenient beariug 



28 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

the plunge of tlie goaded beast thus urged to his passage to 
the Jersey shore, the amiable publicau the meanwhile taking 
cognizance of the whole. 

of the slip. Horses, cows and cattle, generally, were led to its edge and urged 
to the footing below. Often a very difficult and dangerous operation 

The oarsmen rowed at the bow and the stern of the boat. 

There were no fancy offerings for aquatic excursions — no roar of escaping 
steam, nor darkened horizon from the black volcanic eruptive of a Vesuvius 
below. Such ideas had not yet burst from the bosom of their conception ! 
nor entered into the heart of man. 




TVr ATllv E T 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 29 



CHAPTER III. 

The Wharves and their Tenants, from Arch to Market — Sharon Carter and 
his Cooper-shop — The Old Feri-y. 

Good, old-fasliioned shallops hailed a berth at the foot of 
Arch-street wharf, passing to domestic comfort and economy, 
hickory, oak, pine, maple and gum, as fuel for the family 
hearth, at the hands of the Corder, as master of this wood- 
wharf. 

The southwest corner store was a two-story rough stone 
building, weather-beaten and dark with age even in 1805. 
It was occupied by John Groodwin, ship-chandler, the father 
of our present cotemporary, Thomas D. Goodwin. Mr. Good- 
win's tar-barrels abounded at his northern wall, one or two 
of which generally were filched to feed the flaming hilarity 
of an election nia-ht. 

The wharf, here and at the rear of Smith & Wood, Job 
Butcher, and Eobeson & Paul, extended a considerable dis- 
tance outward, and formed the square of a dock immediately 
adjoining. 

Granny Muff, a vendor of candies, etc., took a passage 
under this wharf, it being hollow underneath, and came out 
in the dock on the south side, whence she was gathered up, 
and landed in full life. She had accidentally fallen in on the 
north side. She certainly was not born to be drowned, for 
she lived to a good old age, and died a natural death. 



80 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

This dock was an inlet to the flour store of Hugh & 
Joseph Ely, and Smith & Wood, and was covered at the 
head by a plank wharf or landing, for the convenience of their 
storage, as well as a passage to the Old Ferry, interrupted, 
however, by the small, brick cooper-shop of Sharon Carter,^* 
where, and on the platform at the door, he and his boy Job,t 
rung the " Cooper's March," as a change to the "Yo, heave ho !" 
of the merry darky, as he showed up barrel after barrel from 
the hold of his sloop in the dock. 

This plankway was of about eighty feet in width, and per- 
haps twenty feet in depth, including the platform of the 
cooper-shop. 

The Old Ferry was a dilapidated affair already, in 1800; in 
use, perhaps, as a relief to the Arch-street throng, at the time 
the most popular. 

There was an alley here, called the " Old Ferry Alley,":}: 
leading to "Water street, the soutk side of whicli was flanked 
by the grocery store and building of Samuel Crawford, whose 

* Sharon Carter is still living, an active octogenarian, green in age, active 
and intellectual, and an admirable specimen of old times. 

His drab suit of flowing coat, capacious vest, expansive knee-breeches, 
and fair top-boots, all easy of ingress and egress, surmounted by a fresh and 
florid countenance, dressed in natural bounty of flowing auburn curls, 
mark him well even in the distance. 

He is now a collector of debts — more popular with the creditor than the 
debtor — and who, perhaps from the perseverance of his "fair-tops," have 
impudently dubbed him " Boots." He is now in hia 88th year, even yet in 
the vigor of life. 

f Job Lewis. 

J This Old Ferry, and every vestige of it, is now merged in the shade of 
Delaware avenue; and the tail end of Crawford's store has been squared to the 
line; whilst the Alley leading from Water street to the Ferry has been built 
upon, and is even now covered by the large, brick iron-store of Reeves, Buck 
& Company. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHAXTS. " 31 

rear wall extended far oa the wliarf, intercepting and incon- 
veniencing a straight course, leaving but a small passage 
along the northern border, of some eight or ten feet, to the 
open wharf at the end of the building and around to the 
wharf and dock on the south, to the rear of the store occu- 
pied bj EUiston and John Perot, William Newbold, after- 
ward Montgomery & Newbolds, Gustavus & Hugh Cal- 
houn, etc., to and along another narrow passage, down to 
Clifford's wharf, and the premises of Stephen Girard, whose 
dock here again narrowed the passage to admit the full 
length of his " Goodie Friends," or some other of his mer- 
chantmen, as they in turn breasted the inner guard, or 
hugged the outer escutcheon of his dock. 

His, as were most of the yards of the Water-street houses, 
enclosed by an ordinary board fence, but in due time a sub- 
stantial brick wall displaced his boards, and its gate was his 
daily outlet to Clifford's wharf, the usual landing of his mer- 
chandise. 

The northeast corner of Clifford's wharf had sunk to low- 
water mark, the breast having given way at its base ; it was 
called the Broken wharf, which at high tide made an available 
and convenient basin for bathing, and learners to swim, of 
which boys, and some of large growth, availed themselves 
without fear or favor, except from the dark and heavy streak 
that lay on the shed of Montgomery & ISTewbolds, sunning 
himself, fancied by the younger boys to be " Black Beard," 
which he seemed to enjoy. 

Girard bought the wharf, but did not mend it, because of 
the depth of the water there, and the consequent difficulty 
of driving piles. In 1833, however, after his death, our city 
Fathers undertook it, and completed it by driving piles 



82 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

around it, and afterward extending it to the Warden's wliarf. 
line. 

The passage onward to Market street was uninterrupted by 
hook or crook ; but being, for the most part unpaved, mud 
and mire, in wet seasons, moistened the path more than was 
desirable. Tlie wharf was a straight line, and shallow — a 
mere landing. 

Croussilat's counting-house was refined by a pavement to 
its entrance. 

Jacob Dunton's sail-loft, and AVilliam Bethel's ship-chand- 
lery, were at the head of Bickley's wharf, which opened 
at N^o, 13, before the times of Thomas Reeves, Imley, etc. 

There was a ferry-house at the corner — a two-story frame — 
and the usual slip for the accommodation of boats and pas- 
sengers. This was purchased by Stephen Girard ; and the 
ferry once kept by one Scattergood, together with its appur- 
tenances, were transposed, by the city Fathers, into more 
profitable issues to the city treasury. 

But I must turn the corner here, to notice the life of the 
hill in the busy quarters of William Wray, whose variety of 
dry goods were unusual accommodations to the patrons of 
the ferry, from this and the other side of the river. His 
thrift here spread his domains from midway in the block 
down to the corner, and made him the owner. 

Mrs. Wi\ay was the active spirit of the counter — a good 
saleswoman. 



PHILADELPHIA AXD HER MERCHANTS. 



CHAPTEE lY. 

Wharves — Market to Chestnut — Occupants — Crooked Billet — Death of Isaac 
Jones — Death of John Clark. 

Market-street wharf was a wood wharf, and a fish market 
also graced its entrance from the nether scope of the hill. 

The hill here, as well as those of Arch and Eace streets, was 
quick and severe, but by grading and filling up, an easier 
slope has been attained. 

These hills were our winter's race course, a vent for the ebul- 
lition of life and spirit. Sleds flew rapidly from the summit 
to its base, at the expense of our heels and the profit of the 
shoemaker, whilst our hearts did not return from their beat 
until the wharf's level checked the impetus. Carts, drays and 
v/agons were few on these routes; there was little to mar the 
sport, except now and then the slow, zig-zag course of a wood- 
laden cart, as the poor beast, smarting under the lash, strove 
to do his master's bidding. 

The southwest corner of the avenue was a frame grocery 
and fish store ; and next but one below, was the ferry house 
and slip of John Negus, in 1805. 

The dock next below, was the harbor of the "Wilmington 
and Newcastle packets. Office on the wharf kept by James 
Caldwell, in 1805, in charge of the " Fly," the " Morning Star," 
and the "Eising Sun." 

A line of packet and schooners, fifty-five years ago, run to 
8 



oJ: PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

New York by sea, from first wharf below the Groohed Billet, 
was established by D, & P. L'liomedieu, of New York. Two 
schooners, one the "David," and the other the "Philip," noted 
for their fleetness, constituted the line. Captain George Bird 
succeeded them, and kept up the line many years from the 
same wharf. 

AYm. Warner's AVilmington packets, run from the first 
wharf above the Crooked Billet, opposite the blockmaker's 
shop : they were sloops. 

In 1807, George Hand started an opposition in a larger 
class of boats, and heralded the " Diana," the •' Telegraph," 
and the " Little George Eyre," at No. 8 below. 

But there were fancy gatherings here more attractive than 
packets or pleasure boats. Peach boats took a hitch here, 
and drew hard upon the appetites and desires of men, women, 
and children. 

"Watermelons, in season, flew from hand to hand, with an 
occasional slip for the tooth and taste of the wistful urchin, 
who was not slow to decoy the throw from its proper rest. 
But sixpence would buy half a peck of good peaches, and 
small boys could be accommodated with a watermelon for a 
penny. 

The most remarkable feature in this square was the famous 
" Crooked Billet,''^ deriving its name from several crooked 
pieces of wood transversely arranged, and designating the 
tavern, at the head of the dock, kept by Edmund Byrne in 
1799. 

There was a deep cut into the wharf, intercepting the 
straight course of the wharf or passage, leaving a very narrow 
pass to and from the tavern above and the wharf proper 
below ; while a blockmaker's shop at the corner of the narrow 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. S5 

pass ever impeded or delayed the wayfarer as lie would pass 
onward. 

The passage, in itself, around this corner, up the north side 
of the dock to the alley, and again down the south side to 
tavern and the wharf proper, was a dangerous route even in 
daylight, but much more so at night ; and the life of one of 
our valuable citizens, Mr. Isaac Jones, paid the penalty of an 
adventure here after nightfall, December 2d, 1807, in his 
sixty-fourth year. 

It was a dingy, dismal spot, and a complete man-trap ; for 
several others were drowned in their ignorance of the inter- 
ruption of the line. 

About midway of the wharf, on the south side of this deep 
cut, and nearly opposite the blockmaker's shop, on the very 
edge of the dock, there was another nest of red stores — 
frames, occupied as an iron store, by a certain Joseph 
Eoberts. 

The wharf in front of these stores was the mart for the 
exhibition and sale of ships' " cambooses," stores, etc., made, 
prepared or furnished by E. G. & W. Ashbridge, in 1799. 

In this immediate vicinity, a little north of the dock, another 
very valuable member of the community, was cut off without 
one minute's warning. 

On the night of the 24th, 25th of August, 1803, a fire 
occurred at the store of J. & P. Daniels',* between Water 
street and the wharf; and at early morn our neighbor, Mr. 
John Clark, whose store and dwelling was at the corner of 
Arch and Water streets, went forth to see the ruins ; in passing 
which, a chimney fell and smote him to death. And in five 

* Daniels's vras an embryo shot factory, whence it is supposed that our suc- 
cessful in that business — Paul Beck, took his cue and built the tower to perfect 
the scheme. 



36 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 

minutes from the time he left home, he was returned a 
corpse. 

This catastrophe spread a gloom over every domestic circle 
of the neighborhood of that morning, for Mr. Clark was highly 
respected and well beloved, being very popular for his many 
virtues. 

Paul Beck, of whom more hereafter, was owner of several 
contiguous lots in this compass, variously planted with small 
tenements, and mostly in the tenancy of small dealers, provi- 
sions, ship-stores, sail lofts, etc. 

For the tenancy of the wharves onward to Chestnut street, 
I must refer the reader to the diagram, as most of the incum- 
bents opened on "Water street, and must reappear in the 
detail of that line. 

The wharf line from the Eed Store wharf, was a straight line 
to Chestnut street ; but the dock immediately north of Chestnut 
street, was the receptacle of the "Nantucket and New Bed- 
ford packets," bringing lamp oil of various qualities to the 
store of "Willis and Yardley, at No. 21, the principal oil 
merchants of the day, 1802. 

This firm afterward was extensively engaged in the flour 
trade, upon the same premises. 

Joseph Smith occupied the corner as an iron store, whilst 
Smith & Carson occupied the second story as counting-house 
to their general commercial enterprise. 



-\ 



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PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 37 



CHAPTEE Y. 

Wharves — Chestnut to Walnut — James Stokes — Eyre & Massej' — Tun Alley — 
India Wharf — Robert Morris. 

A WOOD-WHARF bere was again prominent for the acccni- 
modation of the citizens. 

There was also a deep cut or dock on its southern border 
for the use and behoof of the Burlington packets, in 1805. 
At the head of this dock, at the southwest corner of Chestnut 
street, our late wealthy citizen, James Paul, in company with 
John Watson, under the firm of Watson & Paul, in 1802 and 
onward, was located in the provision trade, and that to a very 
successful issue. 

The passage between their front and the wharf log was 
narrow, and led round and up a twelve-feet alley, on the south 
side of their store ; and narrowing to a mere foot-way in 
front of Wm. and John Pritchards' store, next below, to the 
south line of which the dock extended to Chestnut street. 

Here the wharf deepened to sixty-seven feet, including the 
fronts of Samuel Morris, James Stokes, and Eyre & Massey'3 
stores and counting-house, No. 28* South AVharves. 

From this onward, the wharf narrowed to Tun alley,! having 
a basin or dock in front of Sykes', Lloyd's, Welch's, and Smith's 
wharf and lot. 

* And Massey & Shoemaker, in 1799. 

f Tun alley derives its name from the tavern's sign at its foot, being three 
miniature tuns, crossing each other, and suspended over the door. 



88 PHILADELPHIA AND HEE MEECHANTS. 

India Wharf adjoins hei'e, a very important point of com- 
mercial interest. 

It was the harbor for the ''East Indiamen/' and faced by 

the extensive stores of Eobert Morris, of Eevolutionary 

■ times, and occupied by him and Peter Whitesides, in 1789, 

and in 1795 by John Wilcox. Tone and Tenor attached to 

these domains even yet in the early part of this century.* 

The " India Stores"f were largely capacious, and the wharf 
was quite equal to the call. It had a breast of one hundred 
and seventy feet. The line, however, was broken by a short 
pier near its southern limit, and forming a dock on each side ; 
the whole, however, appurtenant to its own stores, with a share 
to the store of Jacob S. Waln.:|: A private alley and the plot 

* This Mr. John Welsh was the sire of the present respectable mercantile 
house of S. & W. Welsh, of No. 50, South Wharves, and the root of their mer- 
cantile pursuit. 

f These stores belonged to Robert Morris ; but Thomas Willing, afterward 
President of the original United States Bank of 1791, John Swanwick, and 
others, were here in the East India trade. 

Mr. Morris bought the United States frigate "Alliance," and fitted her up 
and out for the East Indies, in which she made but one voyage to China, and was 
condemned on her return as unseaworthy, dismantled, and drifted to Petty's 
Island — where 'tis said some of her ribs yet perpetuate the fact of her ex- 
istence. 

On her voyage to China, she had for her commander, Thomas Reed ; first- 
mate, the late Commodore Dale ; and for supercai'go, the late George Harrison, 
of Chestnut street. 

It is recorded thus : " September 19, 1788, the ship ' Alliance,' Thomas Reed 
commander, and George Harrison supercargo, arrived from Canton, consigned 
to Isaac Hazlehurst & Co.," of which Robert Morris was the company. 

The ship was seven hundred and twenty-four tons register: a very large 
ship in those days. 

% Jacob S. Wain occupied the south side of the India Stores fifty years ago. 
He afterward purchased the store south of it, where his son, S. Morris AValn, 
continues mercantile operations. 




:'.;;:3(j5T IBTh 1T63 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 89 

of the estate of John Gardner, to Thomas P. Cope's wharf, 
next below. 

Cope's wharf was an unbroken line of one hundred and 
sixty feet; from India wdiarf to "Walnut street. 

Mr. Cope w^as a prominent and became an opulent shipping 
merchant in the Liverpool trade — the owner of several very 
large ships of most successful issues. 1793 to 1805 knew him 
as a dealer in dry goods, at No. 19 North Second street, at 
the corner of Pewter Platter, now Jones' Alley. 

1812 lit him up as an extensive shipping merchant and 
shipowner at Walnut street wharf;* and 1854, closes his career 
as a millionaire, or something near it. 

Mr. Cope was eminent for his liberality in benevolence, and 
furtherance of public improvements : a willing leader in all 
charitable requirements. 

He died in November of that year in the eighty-seventh 
year of his age, a man of unblemished character, esteemed as 
well for his manners as his means. 

* In 1802, Barking & Annesly -were extensively engaged in tlie tobacco 
trade on these premises. 



40 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Wharves — Walnut to Dock street — Ross's Wharf — Coal-Yard — Robert Ralston's 
Counting-house — Blight, Morton, Morris & Hamilton's Wharves and Stores 
— The Old Fish-Market on Dock street. 

There was no break in tlie wharf-line from Cope's down to 
Ross's wharf, but a straight line of one hundred and sixty.-one 
feet from the south side of Walout street, affording a mere 
passage way or side walk to the projection of Ross's wharf, 
which was of some depth, and bordered a spacious dock of the 
above width of one hundred and sixty-one feet, where ships, 
brigs, or small craft, could and did lie snug and safe. 

Below this, another dock to Morton's wharf, which was 
fifty feet wide, thence a dock to Morris's wharf, and thence 
another dock to Hamilton's v/harf, also large and capacious; 
leaving the passage, or shore, a mere way, except where a pro- 
jection enlarged the border. 

The face of this front showed up a brick store at the corner 
kept by James Yard, a shipping merchant in the St. Croix, 
Spanish Main, Havannah and European trade. Whilst next 
below, a large coal yard of ninety-five feet front, was the 
emporium of Liverpool coal — not Schuylkill County — used in 
that day mostly by blacksmiths ; and there was a blacksmith- 
shop in the yard, doubtless ever ready to test the quality of 
the coals, as was common to say in those daj's. 

A pair of old brick stores adjoining this and a ten-feet alley, 








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PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 41 

gave the lower corner for the counting-house of our late valu- 
able and venerable fellow-citizen, Eobert Ealston, of whom 
more hereafter. Mr. E. was here in 1793. 

Peter Blight occupied the wharf front of John Eoss's, Water- 
street stores. And our present venerable Samuel Breck, was 
located in his mercantile pursuit next below. These premises 
cover eighty-five feet of front, (1797.) 

The well known firm of Savage & Dugan were at this point, 
after Peter Blight, extensively engaged in the West India and 
European trade. Counting-house on Eoss's wharf. 

John Cox's store, counting-house and wharf, takes up thirty 
feet next below, and an alley of twenty feet separates him 
from the premises of John Morton, which covered eighty-one 
feet front. 

■ Morris's stores,* now belonging to the Fassit Estate, adjoined 
below, and covered seventy-seven feet of wharf front. 

Hamilton's stores and extensive front of seventy-five feet, 
follows here, but divided by an alley to Water street. The 
wharf here adjoining was a commercial wharf, but for some 
years past has been a wood wharf. 

The lot south of this to Dock street, was an open lot, 
belonging to the city, and the wharf in front an unindented 
line to the dock. 

This dock was an inlet, answering for unloading of small 
craft, as well as for the laving of horses, of which we boys often 
availed ourselves of an extra hour for amusement, by swim- 
ming our neighbors' horses, which sometimes by a freak of 
their heels swam us to the amusement of lookers-on. But there 
was utility in the dock besides ; horses were often rescued from 

* This Morris was the root of the Brewer family of Morris's, afterward ia 
Second street, between Arch and Race streets, now the premises of the late 
Robert Newlin. 



42 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

drowning by being towed to this declivity, wben by accident 
tbey had fallen into the river, if any way near, or by res- 
tiveness in a horse-boat, or backed over the wharf, their lives 
were at stake. 

The dock, the bridge, the scows and the mud that lay 
under the bridge and in the dock, are fully before the public 
by our Watson, and hence no more of that from me. But on 
the south side of Dock street there was an old store, flanked 
on the south by a wide alley to Water street, and bounded by 
other old stores ; but the line of the wharf was unbroken from 
the dock, southward, and the receptacles of wood to the glory 
and profit of the corder. 

There is, however, an item in my range here, omitted, or 
forgotten, by our Watson, which, although foreign to my 
special purpose, belongs to the early times of Philadelphia's 
famous Dock street ; and as such, I call it up here. 

There was on the south side of Dock street, near Front 
street, the old fish-house, a regular fish-market,* with belfry 
and bell, whose tongue heralded far and wide the arrival of 
fresh fish, besides announcing to the befogged watermen, in 
their passage to and from the Jersey, of the whereabout of the 
landing. 

The old ferry below Arch street, was a competitor in the 
trade and the accommodation ; and fishmongers and fish-eaters 
were called to order by the twang of the bell here also, and 
the temptation to Epicurean fancy. 

From this point to Spruce street, there is nothing particular 

* In 1764, the Common Council of the City resolved to build a fish-market, 
for the purpose of filling up the vacancy between the new stone bridge on 
Front street, and the wooden bridge on Water street. The stone bridge Avas 
built in 1763. The fish-mai-ket was still standing in 1830, altered into a 
store. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 43 

to note, except the wharf estate of the Stamper family, on the 
sonth side of Dock street, and represented by the late Eichard 
Willing, as guardian or trustee of the grand-children of Joseph 
Stamper ; all of this sixty years ago and more. 

John Wain, well known in his day as a vendor of corn, 
supplied the merchants with the article at all times f/om these 
premises. 



44 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 



CHAPTEH Vir. 

Wharves and Stores — Spruce to South. 

Spruce-street wharf was from time immemorial, as it is to 
this day, the oystermen's resort for supplies to their respective 
oyster cellars, shops, and subsequently more refined restaurants, 
seeing that the boatmen congregated here to vend the fruits 
of their tongs from the depth of Egg-Harbor, Cove, Chesa- 
peake Bay, etc., where the active market expedited their 
return to the bivalve families beneath, their floating interference 
with their snug repose below. 

In 1796, and long after, Jesse and Eobert "Wain were pro- 
minent merchants at the corner of the wharf, and theirs was 
the first projection of any depth into the river, and broke the 
monotonous line of Spruce-street wharf: it was known as 
Wain's wharf. They were extensively engaged in the London 
and East India trade for many years. 

Snowden & North, skip-chandlers, occupied the store 
adjoining, but were not proprietors of more wharf than the 
mere passage, hemmed by the wharf-log, to the premises and 
projection of Levi Hollingsworth & Son, upon which, on the 
northern and southern lines of their dock, was planted their 
stores for the reception and issue of flour, having an area of 
dock between the stores. 

These gentlemen were \qyj extensively engaged in the 
flour trade. 



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PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 45 

There was a fifteen-feet wide alley here adjoming Snowden 
& North's, to Water street ; and the dock below, appurtenant 
to Hollingsworth's stores, was /ormed by an extension of Paul 
Beck's wharf, even deeper than the pier above. 

Another dock here led to a jut or small pier, belonging to 
Joseph Johnson, whose ship-chandlery faced the wharf. 

From the above fifteen-feet alley, seven stores occupied the 
upper edge of the wharf, down to Johnson's ship-chandlery, 
which was flanked by another fifteen-feet passage to Water 
street, and gives us the stores of the eminent merchant Joseph 
Sims, of whom also more hereafter. 

Immediately in front of the alley, a small dock washed the 
extensive wharf of Mr. Sims, known as Sims' wharf, directly 
in front of his stores, where the several ships of this opulent 
and popular merchant of 1797, and onward, hugged the breast 
of their safeguard 'till orders came to " let go the hawser." 

From this pier to Pine street, the inner wharf-line was 
straight and continuous, leaving an extensive dock in front of 
Sims's property, whilst a part of his stores extended above and 
below the pier. 

Pine-street wharf was not extended, but was continued a 
straight line across the foot of the street to a pier or projection 
about one hundred feet from the corner, nearly opposite an 
alley from the wharf to Penn street. 

The direct course here is, and apparently ever has been, 
obstructed by a row of stores on the south side of the hill from 
Penn street, extending considerably below the wharf line of 
the north side of the street, compelling passengers to turn to 
the left for the wharf, or to the right for Penn street. 

The corner store of the wharf was occupied by Wharton & 
Palmer, as early as 1797, and onward to and beyond 1807. 

This Mr. Wharton, was Mayor of the City in 1798, and 



46 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

for many years after. He was bold, intrepid, and very active, 
ready at a moment's warning to quell a riot. His appearance 
at such gatherings with staff in hand, and hat tipped a little 
on one side of his head, with firm step, and independent 
authority, would scatter the ire and the fire of the most fero- 
cious mob. Philadelphia never had a more ef&cient and 
popular municipal ofl&cer. 

The wharf-line from Pine to South had several minor 
indentations, but there were two of extra dimensions, to wit, 
Nixon's wharf and Willings' ' wharf, adjoining their large 
dock, embraced by this and the wharf above. 

The stores of Thomas Willing and Willings & Francis, 
were extensive, bounded by a twenty-feet alley to Water 
street, on the north, Lombard alley on the south, and on the 
west by Penn street. 

James Forten, a colored man, occupied the upper part of 
Willings' stores as a sail-loft, where he pursued the trade of 
sail making in 1805, and for many years after, and until 
industry and perseverance handed him over to retirement 
and competency. 

Mr. Forten was a gentleman by nature, easy in manner, and 
affable in intercourse ; popular as a man of trade or gentleman 
of the pave, and well received by the gentry of lighter shade. 
He was very genteel in appearance, good figure, prominent 
features, and upon the whole rather handsome than other- 
wise.* 

But James was ambitious, though certainly unassummg. 
He had a family, and of course strove for a respectable plat- 
form for its members ; and to this end it was said of him that 

^ He was brought up and learned the trade of sail-making, under charge 
of Robert Bridges, of Front below Lombard street. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 47 

he coveted to wed his daughter to a whiter species at some 
sacrifice of his fortune. This was an on dit of the day. 

The several occupants of the line from Lombard alley to 
South street, being located on the diagram, spares me here, 
inasmuch as some of them must reappear on my return 
through Penn street.* I must however close up the square 
with the domain and identity of Peter Blight, who, though 
last in the survey, was not the least in the active business life 
of our Wharves some sixty years ago. 

* It may be proper to note here, that Penn street and Little Water street, 
are two distinct avenues between the wharf and Front street. 

Little Water street is about one hundred feet west of the wharf, and Penn 
street about seventy-five feet west of that. 

Little Water street was a kind of back-front to the wharf-stores; and the 
position and course of Penn street, in many cases, gave it business connection 
with Little Water street. 

Penn street runs from Pine to South street, but Little Water street takes 
the name of Swanson street, from South street to the Swede's Church and 
Navy Yard. 



48 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

Streets — Little Water and Penn streets — Jehu Hollingsworth — John Swan- 
wick — Jacob Gerard Koch — Willings & Francis — M. H. Messchert — Samuel 
Rhodes — Daniel Dolby — Sketch of Joseph Dolby, Sexton of Christ Church 
— Nixon & Walker. 

Having- tlius presented the Wharves, and their general 
front, from Callowhill to South street, by diagram and de- 
scription derived from documental and corresponding mne- 
monical authorit}^, as well as practical observation, I take 
my course northward, from South to Pine streets, in search 
of the principal mercantile life of that compass. 

After passing some small tenements from the corner, the 
counting-house and stores of Jehu Hollingsworth present 
themselves. Mr. H. was a merchant of some account, being 
largely engaged in the West India trade. 

His counting-house was at No. 47 Penn street, but his 
stores were continuous from Little Water street to the 
wharf. 

John Swanwick, a shipping merchant, held a prominent 
position at No. 20 Penn street— for, in addition to his mer- 
cantile pursuits, and his general association with ships and 
cargoes of sugar, teas, coffee, etc., he was a politician of 
1796-97-98, a Democrat of some importance, and as such 
was elected, and sent to Congress about 1795-96, where he 
was also an opponent of Jay's treaty ; these extraneous mat- 



PHILADELPHIA ANQ HER MERCHANTS. 49 

ters being adverse to merchandising, drew heavily upon his 
prosperity, which, perhaps with other evils, suppressed a 
successful issue to his labors. 

Our old friend, Jacob Gerard Koch, and neighbor of Ninth 
and Market streets in 1806-7, was a prominent merchant of 
the day, 1796, and after, at the south corner of Lombard alley 
and Little Water street to the wharf, 

Mr. Koch was a Hollander, an importer and vendor of 
German linens — articles at that day and long after, until 
about 1816, of easy sale and interesting profits, which told 
very sensibly in the treasury of this operator. 

It is related of him, that in a crisis of his times, he was 
supposed to be ruinously damaged ; but at a festive party — 
of which he was a guest — where, perhaps, sympathy shaded 
the scene, he lit up the countenances of his companions by 
an exhibit of available* securities of $700,000, saying, "I'm 
not ruined yet !" 

Mr. K. was a very large, corpulent, and heavy man, 
whom three hundred weight would scarcely excuse. He 
was of very cheerful and happy temperament, promoted, no 
doubt, by as liberal a disposition ; which, with his punctuality 
and probity in all his business transactions, responded to 
each other, and built up his moral, personal, and financial 
weal. 

He was withal as patriotic as he was liberal ; and besides 
lending himself to the Western expedition, offered his purse 
in after time to palsy the prowess of England on the high 
seas. 

In the war of 1812, a subscription was opened by private 
patriotism to build a frigate for the public service ; Mr. 
Koch was called upon, and at a word he subscribed $5,000, 
4 



50 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 

with the remark: "This I give -you — but if the United States 
wants a frigate, I will build one for her myself!" 

I knew him personally, and have often seen him at the 
northeast corner of Ninth and Market streets, where he re- 
sided for many years. In 1796, however, he lived at No. 263 
South Front street. 

In 1819 he removed to Paris, France, where he paid the 
great debt of nature on the 2d of July, 1830, in the 70th 
year of his age. 

Willings & Francis occupied Nos. 21 and 23 Penn street 
above, on the north side of Lombard alley. The Willings's 
were father and son ; and the elder, Thomas Willing, was the 
first president of the original United States Bank, chartered 
in 1791, under the administration of General Washington. 

The parties of the mercantile firm were of the most re- 
spectable, and of the elite of that community. They were 
shipping merchants of the first class, extensively engaged in 
the East India and China trade, from and long after 1796, of 
which Thomas W. Francis was the spur — a man of enterprise 
and force — whilst Thomas M. Willing was the rein, or per- 
haps, qualifying medium ; both, however, eminent men, as 
well as merchants of celebrity. 

In the rear of James Forten's sail -loft, at No. 11 Penn 
street, in 1797, M. H. Messchert was also an eminent Hol- 
lander in the German trade. He was successful in his busi- 
ness, and retired with a very handsome competency. 

This old gentleman enjoyed the run of his business with 
the hum of his musical genius ; and in his retirement, put in 
practice the spark that awaited the leisure moment for igni- 
tion — for it is said of him, that he became a scholar of the 
violin after the run of his 60th year. 

He certainly was a musical man — the concerts of the 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 51 

Musical Fund Society seldom missed him, since he and his 
son, our cotemporarj of No. 1224 Chestnut street, invariably 
patronized the efforts of that society. 

Mr. M. seemed to have a very proper view of bringing up 
a child, in making his son his companion as much as possi- 
ble. He died in December, 1833, in the 70th year of his 
age. He was the brother-in law of Jacob Gerard Koch, and 
cotemporary with him in trade. 

Of mercantile interest, nothing here offers but that of 
Samuel Ehodes, who was a merchant at the south-east corner 
of Penn and Pine street. 

In this compass there was a certain Daniel Dolby, whom I 
presume to have been a brother of Joseph Dolby, the very 
important sexton of Christ Church. 

This Joseph Dolby was that dignitary in 1799, and for 
many years after, and was notorious for his identity with that 
church. 

He was dignified and authoritative ; took his seat at the 
entrance from the steeple ; punctilious in his duties to the 
venerable Bishop or his aids in service ; but his care of quiet 
during the prerequisites to the sermon, was very often marred 
by his " pish" — so long and so loud, that the chancel itself 
must have felt the breach of quiet due to its position. 

But Mr. Dolby must have been a good timeist ; for his 
measure of sermonizing liberated the chair in the steeple, 
whilst he relaxed his position by a walk to the wharf, but 
always back in time for the " Amen" of the pulpit. 

May the reader pardon this interregnum, for if Mr. Dolby was 
not of the mercantile community, he certainly belonged to the 
ecclesiological ; and as such, belonged to the life and doings 
of -the olden time. 

The intermediate space from Nixon's wharf to Wharton's 



62 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

estate, gives notliing for note; but the diagram shows the 
appurtenances, and the occupants who have been already 
noticed in the preceding chapter, 

Nixon & Walker, however, were shipping merchants, 
having their counting-house opposite to their wharf. Henry 
Nixon was president of the Bank of North America twenty 
years ago ; and his father, John Nixon, before that. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 53 



CHAPTER IX. 

Water street — Pine to Walnut — Joseph Sims — Joseph Johnson — Snowden & 
North — Jesse & Robert Wain. 

Penn street ceases at Pine street, and Little Water street 
stops at Lombard Alley; but Water street proper begins 
between tbe two, and continues direct north to Callowhill 
and beyond it. 

The first object of note on Water street proper, is the well- 
known and once opulent Joseph Sims, who was the active 
mercantile business life of the northeast corner of Pine and 
Water streets, and who built, owned, and occupied the first 
and second block in the row north of the corner. His count- 
ing-house was about one hundred feet from the corner, where 
he resided in the paternal mansion. 

His wharf and dock below was the harbor of several of the 
largest class of ships out of the port of Philadelphia, whose 
successive and various cargos of teas and other East India 
luxuries, heralded his enterprise in the manifold grocery 
stores of our city, as they told of the " Woodrop Sims," the 
"Eebecca Sims," the "Fame," and others of his ownership. 

In addition to these, his landed possessioAS were extensive 
collateral evidences of his increase. 

He built, owned and lived in a first-class three-story brick 
mansion, next below St. Peter's church, Third below Pine, 
where he was resident in 1796. Subsequently he built the 



54 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

extensive establishment, southwest corner of Ninth and 
Chestnut, at that time the pride of that street; whilst our 
present Laurel Hill was his country domains, and seat of 
retirement at will from the busy hum of city life. This 
country-seat contained twenty acres, besides ten acres on the 
opposite or east side of the Ridge Road, and are now the 
grounds of the Protestant Episcopal Church of St. James the 
Less. 

^ But, alas ! strong as his mountain, the stronger current of 
adversity swept it even to the valley of humiliation, and the 
crisis of 1823 gave his possessions to other owners. 

Personally, he was none the worse for that ;• venerability 
gave tone to his respectability ; and the real tone and charac- 
ter of Mr. Joseph Sims sparkled from his gentlemanly mien, 
even to his latest day. 

He was the uncle of Mrs. E. S. Bird, of Ninth and Chestnut, 
into whose hands that estate fell. 

The rest of his property was scattered by, and to his credi- 
tors, and left him destitute for many years ; but before his 
close of life, he was absolved ' of the penalty of poverty, by 
befitting returns to his waning years. 

Mr. Sims was of medium stature, and even in his decline 
very active, which doubtless shone to the full in his prime, 
when, besides his mercantile pursuits, he took an active part 
in public life. 

He was a director of the first United States Bank, and one 
of the trustees oi\t^ finale; and a member of the Vestry of St. 
Peter's church, for sixty years, etc., etc., all which he filled 
with honor to himself, and satisfaction to his compeers. 

He departed this life on the 29th of September, 1851, in 
the 91st year of his age, and was buried in the ground of St. 
Peter's church, corner of Third and Pine streets. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 55 

Joseph. Johnson's ship-chandlery store was next above 
Mr. Sims's propert}^, but in the line northward nothing of 
mercantile interest offers for note. The space was filled with 
boarding-houses, tailor-shops, cooper-shops, etc., all doubtless 
respectable in their calling; but being outside of my purpose, 
I must pass them with this respectful apology. 

Fifty years ago, and long after, the house of Snowden & 
North was amongst the most prominent of ship-chandler 
establishments, occupying the premises next below the corner 
of Spruce street, through to the wharf, in front of Levi Hol- 
lingsworth & Son's dock and stores, numbered 2 and 3 in the 
diagram. 

Mr. Hollingsworth gave active life to his wharf privileges, 
as one of the most extensive flour merchants in the city. 

The Water street half of the corner of Water and Spruce, 
was a boarding-house ; but the eastern part on the wharf, was 
occupied as the counting-house of Jesse & Robert Wain, in 
command of the wharf in front. 

Jesse & Eobert Wain were extensively engaged in Euro- 
pean business, and being owners of many ships, had regu- 
larly one or more in the London trade. After the death of 
Jesse, Eobert engaged in the China trade, which he pursued 
successfully for many years, and subsequently retired to the 
presidency of the Philadelphia Insurance Office. 

Having entered into the character and standing of the 
occupants of this square, as they presented themselves on the 
Wharves, and inasmuch as they generally represented them- 
selves at both points, I might pass the line by a mere refer- 
ence to the diagram ; but there was a nook on the wharf, and 
in connection with this line of Water-street occupants, of 
more than ordinary interest. 

The counting-house of Robert Ralston, next above Ross's 



56 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

wharf, was a source of disinterested benevolence, as well as 
extensive mercantile operations. 

Mr. Ealston was one of the most extensive and successful 
merchants in the China trade, in Philadelphia. 

He was a gentleman in all respects ; a man of great integ- 
rity and probity, and of consistent practical piety in the 
Church, always bringing his Christianity to bear upon the 
temporal duties of his various relations in life. He was a 
man " blessed in his deed," influencing a kindred blessing of 
the life of charity over and amongst his brethren in the 
flesh. 

The minutiae of the character and doings of Mr. Ealston is 
beyond my reach and my purpose here; bat my own per- 
sonal knowledge of him was of a goodly sort. 

He was a very fine-looking, full-sized, well-built person, 
of very gentlemanly manners, easy and entirely free of unne- 
cessary reserve ; a very valuable and ef&cient member of the 
Arch-street Presbyterian church, under the administration of 
Doctors Green and Janeway. 

Mr. Ealston died on the 11th of August, 1836, in the 75th 
year of his age, and was buried on Saturday, the 13th, in the 
Presbyterian ground, Arch above Fifth street. 



PHILADELPHIA AXD HER MEECHANTS. . 57 



CHAPTEE X. 

Water street continued — Walnut to Chestnut — Site of the Mariner's Church 
— Samuel Allen — Isaac Hazlehurst — Reed & Ford — John AVilcox— John 
Welch — Charles Massey — Eyre & Massey — Ancestry of Charles Massey. 

The nortli-east corner of Water and Walnut streets was 
tlie grocery store of Alexander Todd in 1795, and Eobert 
Corry, a wine merchant, was next above. 

The Mariner's Church now fills .the site of the earlier loca- 
tion of Samuel Allen, a merchant — subsequently of the 
north side of Arch street, old No. 29.'* Matthias Keely, mer- 
chant, afterward of No. 61 Eace street, above Second street, 
and Eeed & Ford, all adjoining, and giving mercantile life to 
the plot sixty years ago; but seventy years ago, 1789, Isaac 
Hazlehurst did an extensive shipping business on and from 
this spot. 

Mr. Hazlehurst afterward built up the south-east corner 
of Second and Drinkers alley, a very handsome two-story 

* This was a mansion of the first class, twenty-five feet front, large front 
entrance with columns and pediment finish, afterward occupied by Ambrose 
Vass, counting-house and dwelling. It is now the property of Doctor William 
Curran, who has recently remodeled the lower front and made a capacious 
store, which now bears the No. 115, and is occupied by R. S. Reed & Co., 
wholesale grocers, being the first tenants under the new arrangement. 

The altering of this front, with the new corner below, completely nullifies 
the identity of old Arch street. 



58 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS, 

brick, some tliirty feet front, and had his counting-house in 
the rear. 

The counting-house of John Wilcox and his son Richard, 
occupied the south corner of Tun alley to the wharf. 

Next above Tun alley we have the dwelling and counting- 
house of Mr. John Welsh, the sire in paternity and the root 
in mercantile pursuit of the present firm of S. & W. Welsh, 
of Ko. 50 South Wharves, a highly respectable and thrifty 
concern from root to branch. 

Mr. John Welsh was a pioneer in these parts, having been 
already, in 1786, an apprentice in the counting-house of 
Joseph Russel, a prominent shipping merchant of that day. 

After his servitude here, and a voyage to Port au Prince 
as supercargo, he entered the counting-house as clerk of 
Robert Ralston, another distinguished merchant of 1793, 
whose business he conducted during Mr. Ralston's absence, 
to his entire satisfaction. 

In 1794, he entered the arena of mercantile strife on his 
own account, and by his skill and industry won the prize, 
even a competency for retirement, by the year 1806. 

The war of 1812, however, started his energies ; and at its 
close he again assumed the mantle of mercantile dignity — 1 
say mercantile dignity, because he was aufait at all points — 
a good helmsman, without fear or favor, and governed his bark 
to a haven of peace, rest and comfort. He retired to his satis- 
faction, having established an enviable reputation as a mer- 
chant, renowned as the owner of many vessels, and popular far 
beyond the confines of the United States — and planted a suc- 
cession to his thrifty character and standing, even now 
existing, in the firm of S. & W. Welsh, as before stated. 

But he was more than all this— seeing that in 1803 he was 
one of the originators of the Philadelphia Bank, of which he 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 59 

was a director to the time of his death. Two of our 
insurance of&ces, also, owe their existence to his influence 
and efforts. But he was a philanthropist, and had the repu- 
tation, by practical observation, of being a "friend in need" 
— as ready to aid as to advise. 

Having gradually relinquished his fond pursuit, and sold 
his last ship, he said to his consort of threescore years — 
" Now I have no ship !" She replied : "■ And soon you will have 
no wife !" To which he answered : " Then soon I shall have no 
self!" It was so; two short weeks ended their career ! They 
departed not far asunder — an affecting but a most happy 
issue from time to eternity ; for Mr. "Welsh was not only a 
great merchant, but a good Christian. 

He died on March 5th, 1854, at the full age of eighty -four 
years. 

Although Mr. Welch was well-known' and popular with 
all of us of his day, it behooves me to give credit to the 
"Enquirer" of the 6th of March, 1854, for the minutise of 
this notice, which I am happy to endorse, as well from my 
own knowledge as from earlier contemporaneous testimony. 

Joseph E. Evans took the foot-print of Mr. Welsh, pur- 
chasing his store of No. 31 ; and in or near 1807, held forth 
here under the firm, first, of Welsh, Maris & Evans — Mr. 
AVelsh permitting his name as a pioneer in the trade ; sec- 
ond, under the firm of Maris & Evans; thirdly, 1818, as 
Joseph E. Evans — when and where he became eminent as a 
shipping merchant, particularly in the London trade with his 
ships "Electra" and "Thames" — and deservedly popular as a 
citizen and gentleman in good standing. He was brought 'Up 
in the counting-house of Nixon & Walker ; and in his hey- 
day was a codirector with Mr. Welsh in the Philadelphia 
bank for many years. 



60 PHILADELPHIA. AND HER MERCHANTS. 

His demise was sudden and unexpected; an attack of 
heart disease having closed his existence in a business visit 
in New York, where he departed this life on the 8th of Sep- 
tember, 1848, in the sixty-sixth year of his age ; being even 
then in the full tide of life. 

The counting-house of Thomas Lloyd, of Market street, 
and Wm. Sykes, intervening, brings us to the store and 
counting-house of Eyre & Massey ; of this firm our Mr. 
Charles Massey of No. 170 Arch street, now eighty-one years 
of age, is the survivor. 

The tenure of this gentleman's existence leads us far into 
the last century ; and, thanks to him and his tenacious 
memory, gives me an antiquarian scope. 

Mr. Massey was brought up in the counting-house of 
Henry Pratt, who, in 1795, took into partnership his earlier 
clerk, Mr. Abraham Kintzing. 

This association links him to the times and doings of 1795 
With an inquiring mind peeping into antecedents, and as such 
losing nothing of his training nor yet of his observation. 

After a servitude of four years, 1795-1799, with Pratt 
& Kintzing, he formed a connection with his brother and 
Thomas Shoemaker ; and under the firm of Masseys & Shoe- 
maker, conducted a West India and a coasting trade at and 
from No. 24 South Wharves. 

In 1803, Mr. Manuel Eyre became his partner — and the 
well-known firm of Eyre & Massey of No. 23 South Water 
street and No. 28 South Wharves, where maritime facilities 
found a response to their offerings, and the East and West 
Indies, as well as Europe and South America, knew them as 
the life of busy scenes for forty-two years, without blur or 
blemish, to the death of Mr. Eyre in 1845, which of course, 
dissolved the connection. 




aR27 14J'« jiPRII, I77S 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 61 

As matter of cnriositj as well as history, I append here 
the world-wide route of their operations, furnished to me by 
Mr. Charles Massey, the survivor of the firm ; there being 
nothing, perhaps, on record to surpass it, at least in Phila- 
delphia. 

First. They owned during their business connection, up- 
ward of twenty sail of vessels, from the largest size of ships 
down to schooners, calculated for the various ports of their 
destination. 

Second. Their enterprise reached the following ports : Arch- 
angel, Toningen, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Havre, 
Bordeaux, Bayonne, Lisbon, St. Ubes, Oporto, Cadiz, St. 
Lucar, St. Sebastian, Gibraltar, Malaga, Barcelona, Marseilles, 
Island of Sardinia, Genoa, Leghorn, Palermo, Cette, London, 
Liverpool, Ireland, Plymouth, Falmouth, Madeira, Teneriffe, 
Cape de Yerd Islands, Vera Cruz, Alvarado, Jamaica, St. 
Jago de Cuba, Havana, New Providence, St. Domingo, St. 
Thomas, Guadaloupe, St. Croix, Curagoa, Laguira, Mara- 
caibo, Cayenne, Pernambuco, Corunna in Spain, Bahia, Eio de 
Janeiro, Santos, Eio Grande, Paranaquay — the last seven ports 
on the coast of Brazil. Buenos Ayres, Montevideo, Valparaiso, 
Irico, Coquimbo, Copiapo, Lima, Guayaquil, Panama, the last 
seven around Cape Horn. Sandwich Islands, Java, Sumatra, 
Manilla, Canton, Calcutta, Madras, besides some dozen ports 
in the United States. 

Third. One of their ships, the "Globe," made eight voyages 
to China and. back. This ship, during a period of twenty 
years made twenty-nine voyages, some of them of more than 
one year's duration. 

Fourth. It is a remarkable fact, that in all this risk and 
adventure, they never made a total loss. 

It belongs to the history of this firm to say, that although 



62 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

SO extensively engagea m mercantile pursuits, they devoted a 
part of their time to public service. 

Mr. Massey was for many years a member of the Select 
Council of our city, and in turn, also of the Common Coun- 
cil, in which he took an active part. He was chairman of 
the committee on opening Delaware Avenue, agreeably to the 
will of Stephen Girard, in 1834; also, appointed by the 
Court of Quarter Sessions a juror of valuation of the wharf 
fronts; and for his general knowledge of wharf property, 
selected as chairman of that jury. And he, with his fellow- 
jurors, did value by critical arithmetical estimate, the pro- 
perty required for the avenue from Arch to Chestnut, and 
from Walnut to the lower side of Spruce street, — being 
owner of part of the intermediate square, he was ineligible 
for that duty. 

Mr. Manuel Eyre, who was also brought up in the count- 
ing-room of Henry Pratt, was no less energetic or public- 
spirited. He was a member of our City Council, and a di- 
rector of the United States Bank of 1816, and again of the 
same under the charter of Pennsylvania of 1836 ; but his 
forte was more that of an agriculturist, to which he devoted 
mainly the last twenty years of his life, being the owner and 
operator of two farms near the city, and three in the State 
of Delaware — indeed a very projector of Delaware City. 

Mr. Eyre was of full size, being six feet in height, square 
built and well proportioned — he had an independent but not 
a haughty carriage — he had a very prominent nose and 
strong features generally, with a thoughtful and observing 
eye, shaded by his hat of broader brim than fashion called 
for. He was a man of integrity and respectability, unmoved 
by any adverse crook in trade, or flow of incidental success. 

He was the son of Manuel Eyre, Sen., of Kensington, an 



PHILADELPHIA AXD HER MERCHAXTS. 63 

eminent shipwright there, who had been a Colonel in the 
Eevolutionarj war of 1776, and subsequently a member of 
the Legislature of Pennsylvania. 

There being no shade nor shadow of a likeness of my sub- 
ject, I offer the description as a substitute for a portrait that 
else should be here. 

A curious feature of the times was that they insured, fre- 
quently, to any part of the world, hy the year^ with liberty of 
proceeding to any port without notice. 

I give this — neither as puif, nor boast for the principals — 
but as appears to me a very extraordinary tissue of mercan- 
tile force, and equally so of successful issues, ignorant of a 
parallel, and well assured that we have no such expansive 
minds nowadays, nor courage for the opportunities if they 
even were open. Our capitalists live, move and operate 
under the smoke of their own chimneys, and hold too much 
to the penny and the cake too. 

The natural business capacity of the survivor has lost 
nothing by the demise of his partner — his habits, impelled by 
the freshness of his mind, continues the life of his activity ; 
so that even now, the elbow-chair of his early haunt em- 
braces him daily to foster his ruminations through the pleas- 
ures and the pains of his threescore years association. 

But a tribute is due to the elasticity of his mind, memory, 
and understanding. His mind, unworn by time, with a 
memory even pentagraphic, gives intelligence to his mental 
issues and authenticity to his historical reference. As an evi- 
dence, permit the following. In my search for dots and lines 
of the past, especially the wharves, I called on Mr. M., who 
at once gave me a diagram of several squares, which being 
compared with an original draft made by Eeading Howell, 
more than fifty years ago, and copy taken by my very valu 



64 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

able friend and lielp in this matter, Mr. E. F. Durang, au 
architect of value, was found to be correct to a line. 

Mr. M. is an antiquarian to all intents and purposes, and 
holds valuable statistics of our city of more than sixty years 
gathering. Although not a birthright member, he has always 
been an adherent to the Society of Friends, and a regular 
attendant of their meetings of worship ; his ancestors being 
of that faith, and he, an early pupil of the Friends' school in 
Philadelphia. 

He is an Irishman by root, his great grandfather, Samuel 
Massey, having emigrated hither from Ireland, in the year 
1699, the time of William Penn. 

As the son of Samuel Massey, and grandson of "Wight 
Massey, both shipping merchants, all of the last century, he 
has fallen heir to some old time affairs, amongst which he has 
a lease of his grandfather, Wight Massey, merchant, to 
Eobert Dixon, for a lot of ground, described as being at the 
northwest corner of Arch and Broad streets, containing 
ninety-nine feet on Arch, by three hundred and six feet on 
Broad street, to a vacant lot, through which now Cherry 
street passes. 

The lease is dated March 25th, 1749, term seven years, at 
£4, Pennsylvania currency, $10 67 per annum, payable half- 
yearly. , 

This lot now holds the First Baptist church, and one of its 
most valuable members, Mr. Thomas Watson, who built and 
resides next west of the church edifice. 

Besides the above venerable relic, Mr. Massey is in posses- 
sion of the receipt book of his great grandfather, Samuel 
Massey, of 1699 ; all the mercantile books of his grandfather, 
as also those of his father, Samuel Massey, 1754 to 1778. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 65 



CHAPTER XI. 

Water-street — Chestnut to Market — John Skyren— Joseph Anthony — Thomas 
Pryor — Charles Massey — Buckridge Sims — Paul Beck — Petit & Bayarde — 
Ramford Dawes — Negus's Ferry — Jacob Clement — William Newell — and 
Bunkson Taylor. 

In 1795, John Skyren, merehant, occupied the northeast 
corner of Water and Chestnut street, and John Little was his 
neighbor; but previously, in 1793, the Chestnut street part 
of this block, at No. 5, was occupied by Joseph Anthony & 
Son, shipping merchants, of considerable note of that day, 
and John May bin afterward. 

This Joseph Anthony was the father of the Joseph 
Anthony, Jr., of No. 94 Market street, a notable silversmith, 
well known a few doors above Third street, on the south 
side. 

His senior, the elder Mr. Anthony, built and occupied the 
large three-story brick house, northeast corner of Ninth and 
Market streets ; the house afterward the residence of Jacob 
Gerard Koch, heretofore noticed. 

The stores and counting-house of the Messrs. Anthony & 
Son, with the lots belonged to the Pemberton estate. 

John Stille, Jr., and Benjamin & Samuel Stille, occupied 
the store next above, as commission merchants, as agents in 
part of the celebrated William Gray, of Salem, Mass., for the 
sale of his various India and China goods. 
5- 



66 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

Willis & Yardlej occupied the next above as a flour store 
1802. 

Thomas Pryor, next above, was the brother of Norton 
Pryor, a well-known extensive dealer in, and importer of, 
hides ; they were the nncles of our Charles Massey. 

Charles Massey, another uncle of our venerable Charles, a 
merchant of some account, was located the second house 
above Crooked Billet Alley, in 1788. 

Buckridge Sims, a brother of Joseph Sims, occupied the 
store and counting-house next above as a shipping merchant ; 
and here adjoining we have the busy and thrifty quarters of 
our prominent, and in process of time, opulent and valuable 
citizen, Paul Beck, Jr. 

After serving his time with Henry Sheaf, at the southeast 
corner of Market and Fifth streets, in the grocery business, 
we find him a fixture, in 1789, in the same trade, on his own 
account, where in due time he increased his borders from 
Ko. 11 to Nos. 11, 12 and 15, where the firm of Beck & Har- 
vey was formed, and flourished for some years, until the 
retirement of Mr. Harvey to private life, Mr. Beck pursuing 
the tide of fortune till age and physical inability set his per- 
severance at nought, but leaving opulence for his reward, 
and a heart fraught with active benevolence. 

The day of his mercantile enterprises was as well, in him, 
a focus of public spirit. 

In the year 1820, he suggested and proposed a plan to im- 
prove the river front from the wharf to Front street, but 
failed of like spirits to carry out the idea. 

The annexed plan will show the features of the project, 
from which we may draw the following conclusions : — 

To describe the changes and proposed improvements, as 
submitted by him to the City Councils, in 1820, we may first 




.iromthe River. 



"I I'""ll«'l IllllllillillllllllllllllllllillW 



St. 



i 


r.«^ 




i 








1 


r 



^g by 2 feet -w-ide, a 



E 



5^ 



W-N 




JL 




''-^tttWfMl.! 3S0l- 



;itar- "~5»tgr.'/^=)JJ±a3i 8BjI 



rTMmS:; rTT»Tan "" rTT¥rn ?£n iTt»rn ;i.:=s; mTra ! 
iwiaJiiiiQTMTa; U [llui; uMrn c=U LUU 



T- .:.T.:.iix :n.- . -;..;zi ... ii ...ijiijffj'!;. '" ' 



^^^^l^i^fp^ "'^j^-W 



View of tlie Stores OH flip wh a I'f'lToin tlie Kiver. 



W«il,wil}|lroii ) 
froitlfrffinWatcrSljl 




FRONT St. 

llMMIBiailHI.WMiiMliaiMWIilllllillliimili. IHllllllLlll l— 



NEW WAT Ell S , 



Mmaiiipniiiiiiiiiiiiiii!iiiii|iiiiTiiM»wim»i»ii»i pimMgim^^^ 









t I 



Kii.l, J.lo.k „,. li.e -,l,;.rf,islOO foel long, ]>_y 40 fi-et wido, and contain.s 1' ,Sn.re!i,.i(l t>-,-( lor,^ l.y L'd fi-et >v-i.U, Old 111 p aviM-H^e .listnnc p . f , ll..^ liiv.-i- i« 7 .', IV <■ I . 



I 




PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 67 

speak of the plan, the most important feature of which was, 
to vacate the property on the east side of Front street, and 
build a retaining wall on the street line, capped with an iron 
railing, and create a new Water street on the eastern or lower 
side of the wall, and removing all the then present existing 
buildings, laying out the vacated ground in new, uniform 
building blocks, each forty feet front by one hundred feet in 
depth, each block being subdivided into four store-houses, 
having a cartway between every block, the front on Delaware 
Avenue being set back from the wharf line seventy -five feet 
on the average. 

The range of buildings represents a geometrical elevation 
of the buildings, the retaining wall and its railing showing in. 
between the several blocks at the cartways. 

The extent of the improvement was to be from Vine to 
Spruce street, and the estimated cost, $3,651,000. 

To say the least,' the idea was as interesting as it was bold, 
and could it have been carried out, would have made the port 
of Philadelphia and its embankment, perhaps, the most pictu- 
resque in the world. 

He built the first shot-tower in the United States ; it was 
situated on the north side of Arch street, near the Schuylkill, 
and paid well for the enterprise. 

Mr. Beck was the architect of his own fortune, which 'was 
great, and well applied in public benefactions. 

He was amongst the founders of the Sunday School Union, 
which, with many other public charities, he endowed hand- 
somely and substantially by his last will and testament. 

He was rather small of stature, very neat in person, of 
mild, modest, and benevolent countenance, marked by a 
bearded wart near his chin — rather interesting than otherwise 
— a gentleman in manners, and active in business matters. 



68 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

His residence in 1805, and for many years, was a very 
handsome first-class three-story brick mansion, on the north 
side of Market street above Eighth — old number, 315. The 
lot extended to Filbert street three hundred and six feet, 
and in width on Market street was thirty-three feet. In his 
decline, he had an of&ce in the rear of his dwelling, over the 
door of which he had the original sign of Paul Beck, Jr. 

The house was built by the Rev. Samuel Magaw, rector of 
St. Paul's Church, and the predecessor of our late venerable 
Dr. Pilmore. 

The premises were sold at public auction in December, 
1849, and bought by Freed, Ward & Freed, for $16,500, and 
is now a flour mart and railroad depot. 

Paul Beck died December 22d, IS^l, in the eighty-fourth 
year of his age. 

Petit & Bayard were parties in mercantile interests as next 
neighbors of Mr. Beck, and Rumford Daws gave mercantile 
life to the premises above, whilst Negus's Ferry was doubt- 
less the busiest, and perhaps the most noisy life of the neigh- 
borhood. 

Jacob Clement & Bankson Taylor were extensive grocers 
next above, 1795. 

Bankson Taylor, after retiring from the grocery business, 
became a mariner for a season, and commanded the ship 
" Gleaner" to Calcutta in 1808. After his experience here, 
he again entered the mercantile list on shore, in company 
with Samuel Allen of Arch street, where the firm of Allen 
& Taylor was prominent in 1817. In 1823, he was aloiie in 
business, and had his counting-house on Blckley's wharf, 
above Market street. 

His partners were highly respectable ; but Mr. Clement 
was the plainer man of the three. Capt. Tajdor left a hand- 



PHILADELPHIA AND HEE MERCHANTS. 69 

some estate id very good hands, and Mr. Clement a good 
business with very respectable sons to attend to it. 

The life of the corner, however, was in our well and wide 
known William Newel, who was identified here as a popu- 
lar grocer from the year 1792, and for many years into the 
present century. 

He was succeeded by his son William, conducting the 
same business ; and even now, Ms son William C. perpetu- 
ates the memory of his grandfather in like pursuits, next 
below the homestead on the same soil, where also the sign of 
his original of 1792 shows forth the date of the busy point 
of the life of the grandsire, and the root of the third genera- 
tion in the same trade on the same spot. 

It may not be amiss to charge history here with a fixture 
of more than fifty years' growth, on the opposite southwest 
corner of Market and Water streets. 

John Culin betokened his calling as tailor and vendor of 
ready-made clothing there, already in 1808 ; and even yet 
holds the spot in continuance of his calling. 

Mr. Culin is therefore now a venerable relic of the olden 
time, and holds his own as a respectable and good citizen. 

Since writing the above, Mr. Culin has been gathered to 
his fathers. 

He died, it is said, of apoplexy, on the 27th of July, 1859, 
in the eighty-third year of his age. 

About midway, around the corner toward the wharf, we 
must notice en passant the Blue Anchor Tavern, kept by 
John Michaeljohn: a famous resort for the boatmen and 
fishermen of that day. 



70 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Water street— Market to Arch — Bohl Bohlen — ^B. & J. Bohlen — Thomas Leiper 
— Louis Croussilat — Stephen Girard — His mansion — S. V. Anderson — Crooke 
Stevenson — G. & H. Calhoun — Samuel Crawford — Smith & Wood — Smith & 
Ridgway — Job Butcher — Robeson & Paul — John Clark. 

In passing this square, althougli I have material to dot and 
line every one of its tennants, I cannot diverge too much 
from my intent and purpose, without trespassing upon a com- 
piler of a Directory, and must therefore confine myself to the 
permanence and prominence of its mercantile life. 

In 1793, Bohl Bohlen, a Hollander, was known as mer- 
chant at No. 7 JSTorth Water street. He, perhaps, was the first 
importer and vendor of " Weesp Anchor Gin" in Philadel- 
phia. In 1797-8, his brother John, his clerk theretofore, 
became his partner, and B. & J. Bohlen still were at No. 7 
North Water street. In 1802 this firm was known at No. 26 
Chestnut street; but subsequently, 1805, at Nos. 67 and 69 
South Fourth street, where death dissolved and fiaally annihi- 
lated the firm after a most successful pursuit to the end of 
the business term of both members of the firm. 

They were both good specimens of Holland merchants, 
first class, real business men, and stemming all the crosses 
and crooks of more than half a century of active business 
life, dissolved sine die, leaving a very extensive evidence of 
their successful labors in an unmistakable balance in their 
favor. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HEE MEECHANTS. 71 

Our old familiar citizen, Thomas Leiper, in the year 1795, 
found himself at home at No. 9, next above the Messrs. 
Bohlec, where he may have began his dealings in snuff" and 
tobacco. 

Mr. Leiper was an eminent tobacconist, subsequently on 
the south side of Market street above Eighth street, where 
the statue of a Scotch laddie at the door, in the act of taking 
a pinch of snuff) silently but significantly announced the sale 
of snuff", tobacco, and cigars within, whilst the proprietor was 
known in his sortie by his measured and independent gait, 
and his fanciful neck gear of a -red bandanna handkerchief, 
drawn around from the back of his neck, folding the ends 
under his vest, showing the red border, and ever and anon 
signalizing Thomas Leiper; which permit me to say, was not 
without its eff"ect upon his very respectable appearance. 

Louis Croussilat ranged prominently in this row, No. 13 
being his residence ; immediately back of this, Croussilat's 
wharf and counting-house were well-known. Mr. Croussilat 
was a Erench merchant, in the French trade, extensively and 
favorably known as a shipping merchant, 1802. After re- 
tiring from his mercantile pursuits, he purchased and resided 
on a small farm in the Neck, below the city, known as " Point 
Breeze," on the river Schuylkill, since sold to the city by his 
only survivor, a daughter, for the erection of city gas-works. 

Joseph Carson, the grandsire of our present fellow-citizens, 
Hugh L. Carson, a merchant on Chestnut street, and Doctor 
Joseph Carson, of No. 1120 Spruce street, was a prominent 
merchant at No. 7, before Mr. Bohlen, 1785 to 1791. 

But there was a speck of the " wealth of nations" in this 
Water-street line ; the universally-known Stephen Girard was 
a meteor of the mercantile community, at No. 23. 

He was celebrated for his perseverance, indefatigable 



72 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

industry, economy, and almost unparalleled success in all his 
undertakings. Every thing he touched seemed to turn to 
gold. He was, in effect, a very philosopher's stone. 

It is said of him, that he did not begin his increase until 
he was forty years of age — encouraging to early unsuccessful 
strife, and a beacon to perseverance, and the changes and 
chances of life. 

In 1791, Mr. Girard kept a greengrocery and provision 
store at No. 43 North Front street, occupying through to 
and on Water-street, at No. 31, where he lived and moved 
carefully and economically in all his domestic arrangements. 
An old lady, who lived with him as seamstress to his wife at 
this early period of his life, has often told me, that neither he, 
she, nor they, were ever allowed to indulge in more edibles 
than was absolutely necessary. He therefore set out to make 
money, and fortune beset him, and wealth surrounded him. 

From a tablet on the balcony of the second story of his 
subsequent residence, at No. 23 North Water-street, it may 
be fairly inferred that he built and occupied that domain in 
1796. 

This house was a four-story pressed brick of the first-class, 
in which his counting-house was the front room, on Water 
street. The adjoining room in the rear was his breakfast 
and dining-room, which was smaller than the counting-room, 
being narrowed by the staircase in the entry. 

The parlor was the front room (on Water-street) of the 
second story, and his chief clerk, Mr. John A. Barclay, says, 
was handsomely furnished with ebony chairs and cushioned 
seats covered with velvet, and sofas to match. The bed- 
chambers were in the rear and above this parlor. 

He had a private counting-room next below, keeping the 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 73 

lower floor as his sanctum, whilst the floor above was the 
depository of his books and papers. 

I am thus particular about his dwelling, because our city 
Fathers have obliterated his whereabouts, annihilated his 
business identity, and have sunk their memoirs in the Girard 
Estate, with small thanks to the donor, destroying every ves- 
tige of the means that begat the misnomer of his intentions ; 
a misappropriation of his fund, that he, Stephen Girard, 
would repudiate and denounce, were he here present. 

I have nothing to do with the private character of Mr. 
Girard. I am aware that much has been charged upon his 
want of affection to his wife ; but Mr. Barclay, before men- 
tioned, tells me that, as he lay a corpse, a Mr. and Mrs. Price 
came to see it, whereupon Mrs. Price, his wife's sister, said, 
"There lies one of the best of husbands." Mr, Barclay being 
an eye and ear- witness to the scene, is certainly good author- 
ity. And as "good may always be said of the dead," let the 
memory of Girard have the benefit of this. 

But more, Mr. Girard, despite reports to the contrary, was 
certainly imbued with a spirit of benevolence, but guided by 
prudence, and regulated by his own peculiar views of pro- 
priety: for instance, a man once went to him for alms or em- 
ployment. Girard set him to work to remove a pile of bricks 
from one side of his yard to the other ; the man soon reported 
the job as done. Mr. Girard said, ''Now carry them back 
again." The man did so, and again reported, " Done, sir." Gir- 
ard again said, " Now put them back to where you found them." 
The employee demurred and declined. Mr. Girard said, " Ha ! 
you do not want work," and paid him. This was his idea of 
promoting industry. 

Again, it was a tangible fact to see the large gate on 
Eleventh below Market street, of Dunlap's lot, thrown open 



74 PHILADELPHIA AND HEE MERCHANTS. 

in the winter season for the benefit of the poor ; for whom he 
had accumulated, on that lot, the refase lumber from his 
various buildings, from which the humble hearth often was 
made to glow with grateful aspirations to the thoughtful donor. 

And again, much as he was said to be opposed to religion, 
he constantly did give to the raising of " holy temples," but 
he chose to measure his donation ; but dictation to liberality 
was a dangerous experiment, and a negative most certainly 
followed the most familiar efibrt. 

But most of all, he winds up his life by a grand scheme for 
the benefit of our race; and however his views have been 
misconstrued, and his means wasted in the execution of his 
benevolent purpose, the heart and the sympathy of Grirard, 
must forever be felt by the manifold recipients of his bounty. 

I do not herald these as emanations from any religious 
principles — for he had no credit for any — but rather as a 
moral principle always directed to the well-being of his 
fellow-man. 

The love of gain was doubtless a cardinal point with him ; 
but it was an impulse to his enterprise, and the argument to 
his courage, for he was a merchant of skill and of liberal 
and extensive views. 

He was the first merchant in Philadelphia, and perhaps in 
the United States, that some fifty years ago undertook to 
lengthen a ship by cutting her in two, and inserting twenty 
or thirty feet in her middle, in view of increasing her capa- 
city and her speed. The experiment was successfully per- 
formed by his ship-carpenter, Isaac White. 

Preparatory to the operation, the ship was placed in a 
cradle, or ways, and hauled up on the shore by large cables 
attached to capstans, as performed on his ship " Liberty," 
and another of his ships, afterward. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 75 

But employment of purse as well as person, was another 
cardinal point with him, and armed his enterprising spirit to 
grapple with the monetary world. 

To this end he purchased the old United States Bank 
building, and established there, in 1812, a banking institu- 
tion, under the name of the "Girard Bank," appointing 
George Simpson cashier,* and himself acting as president. 
This was another successful branch of his fertile conceptions ; 
but the notoriety of this original " Girard Bank" is stereo- 
typed to the world; and needs — from me — no more than the 
reference to it as connected with its originator. 

I am not here to extenuate his faults, nor to denounce his 
errors. I knew him as good to the poor, and kindly indul- 
gent to the sick, of which the Yellow Fever of 1793 and 
1798 bore ample testimony; but I knew him also, as a 
reputed debtor to Christianity, notwithstanding he was a 
liberal contributor to the building of churches. 

An incident in his mercantile life, showing his ready wit, 
may not be without interest in closing this memoir. 

He had a cargo of salt at his wharf, at which his principal 
dealer in that article — to cheapen it to his own price — shied. 
Girard's jeu d'esprit was prompt to corner his antagonist. 

''Tom," said he to his porter, "why can't you buy that 
cargo?" Tom laughed, and replied, "Why, sir, how can I 
buy ? I have no money." " Never mind," said Girard, "you 
can buy it for all. Take it and sell it by the load, and pay 
me as you sell it." The porter took the hint. The salt was 
out of the market — his opponents were foiled — and Tom, 

* After the death of Mr. Simpson, Joseph Roberts was his cashier until his 
death, and the winding up of the bank. Mx-. Roberts was one of his 
executors. 



76 PHILADELPHIA AND HEE MERCHANTS. 

from this liit, became a prominent salt mercliant, and as such 
flourished for many years after. 

" A man of skill he was, with all his faults, 
Subject to like returns, or Wit's assaults; 
And the' in vision blurr'd, in glance he peei*'d, 
And saw the germ that others miss'd or fear'd." 

Stephen Girard was married in 1777, to Mary Lumm, by 
the Rev. Samuel Magaw, Eector of St. Paul's Church.. 

Samuel Y. Anderson was a grocer, and resident at No. 25, 
next above Girard, in and long after 1802. 

North & Haskins were also in the full tide of the grocery 
trade near by, at No. 31. This Mr. North was afterward 
High Sheriff of the City and County of Philadelphia. 

Gustavus & Hugh Calhoun were equally prominent as 
shipping-merchants, in connection with their several Charles- 
ton packets, nest above. This Gustavus Calhoun was the 
father-in-law of the late John Bohlen, and Hugh Calhoun was 
the son-in-law of the late, aged John M. Taylor. 

Montgomery & Newbolds were perhaps the most popular 
wholesale grocers in this range. Mr. Montgomery was bland, 
free and unsophisticated in social, as well as in business life, 
and was popular for his accessibility. 

The Messrs. Newbold were from Mount Holly, of good 
character and standing, and good business men. William 
Newbold, of this firm, was the father of our active cotem- 
porary, William H. Newbold, of Dock and Walnut, a very 
lively specimen of a s|Dirited ancestry somewhere. 

These gentlemen, with their families, were, most of them, 
resident over their stores or counting-houses. 

The houses were of the first class, well built, and hand- 
somely finished in the interior, with broad, open newell stair- 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 77 

ways, guarded by broad oaken band-rail, leading to tbe upper 
apartments; tbe parlors being in the second story, witb an 
unobstructed view of the Delaware and its floating wealth. 
These parlors were handsomely finished with carved mantels, 
and some fancy work on the ceiling. 

Water-street being the Court end of the town in the days 
hereunto referred, taste and genius in constructing habita- 
tions were as active and lively in proportion to the popula- 
tion, as they are even now ; their tastes and genius were 
students of their comfort, subject to the economy of life, and 
they lived better and at less cost than their equals of the 
present day. 

The lower story and rear front were the counting-houses 
and stores of the merchants resident above. Wood-sheds and 
lumber-nooks were humble incumbents of the yards on the 
wharf beneath the windows of the counting-houses ; and 
even now I see the burly negro, at full length, sunning him- 
self on the shed of Montgomery & Newbolds, alarming us 
boys by a single stir, as we floundered in the basin of the 
" Broken Wharf," immediately under his eye. 

As early as 1793, our well-known citizens, EUiston & 
John Perot, held forth, prominently and extensively, as 
wholesale merchants, at ISTo. 41 ; but their domicils were side 
and side, at 297 and 299 Market street, north side, below 
Eighth street, where Edward Perot, the son of John Perot, 
remains as a notch in the so-called march of improvement.* 

* Elliston Perot built his house ia 1793, and John Perot built next door, in 
1804. 

Elliston Perot was married at Friends' Meeting, to Sarah, daughter of 
Samuel Sansom, of Front street ; and John Perot was married by the Rev. 
Dr. Blackwell, to Miss Tyebout, daughter of Andrew Tyebout, of Chestnut 
street, hatter, 1783. 



78. PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 

These sires were remarkable for their steady and unob- 
trusive walk in life. 1'he one was a member of the 
Society of Friends, the other of the Episcopal church ; but 
they were two that varied in opinion, and. still agreed to 
differ. 

They were in business together for many years, and died 
in the harness, at a good old age — as full of benefits as they 
were of years : they were good men and true. 

Charles French and Samuel Crawford made up the line to 
the Old Ferry alley, Mr. French retired many years ago to 
private life, in Arch street, north side, near Seventh street ; 
and as matter of further history, it may be in place to state 
that Mr. Crawford had the rearing of the late Joseph Har- 
rison, Sr., in the grocery business — who died on the 9th of 
December, 1858, in his eighty -first year. 

Joseph Harrison became the son-in-law of Mr. Crawford, 
and the father of our opulent cotemporary, Joseph Harrison, 
Jr., to whose credit be it recorded, that thus far he is none 
the worse for his vast estates. 

Onward, above the Old Ferry alley, we had the extensive 
dealers in groceries, the firms of Smith & Wood, and Smith & 
Eidgway, in the same building, the latter having their rooms 
over the former. Success attended their operations, and they 
ultimately had something to show for their labors in business 
life. 

Smith & Eidgway were largely engaged as shipping and 
importing merchants, in the West India and European trade. 
They owned many vessels, and ht one time shipped largely 
to Antwerp, as far back as 1796. 

They were successful in their trade ; but Jacob Eidgway 
afterward settled in Antwerp as a merchant — had a large 
commission business — and after some years returned to Phil- 



PHILADELPHIA AND HEE MERCHANTS. 79 

adelpTiia with a very handsome reward of Ms mercantile 
prowess. 

James Smith retired witli ample means to quiet quarters ; 
whilst Mr. Eidgway continued his business habits, guarding his 
accumulations till time to him was no longer, and departed 
this life on the 30th of May, 18i3, in the seventy-fifth year of 
his age. 

Mr. James Smith, of this firm, died on the 27th of May, 
1826, in the sixty-sixth year of his age ; a highly esteemed 
member of the Society of Friends. 

Mr. Job Butcher, though a retail grocer, was a very respect- 
able part of the active business life of JSTo. 49, even in 1793, and 
for many years after — some distance into the present century. 

Our neighbor Butcher was an indulgent patron of youth, 
whose good-nature elicited their familiarity and permitted 
access to his sugar-casks, whilst he winked at the resistless 
temptation at the ends of their fingers. 

But we had the freedom of the store from front to rear, 
where, on the landing at the head of a flight of steps leading 
down to his yard and wharf, he had one or two pet Eaccoons, 
with which, between school-hours, we were allowed to play 
to our heart's content ; but the black lumps of his sugar, if 
even less attractive, was the appetital relish of our fun, leav- 
ing yet a sweet savor to the reminiscence. 

He was a clever old gentleman, of the Society of Friends ; 
was a kind neighbor — attended to his business — and finished 
his course unscathed of the evils of failure in his honest and 
laudable pursuits. 

His son, Amos W., succeeded him; and, I believe, success- 
fully. 

He too was a ray of his father, retiring in manner, but 
steady and forceful in his matters of business, 



80 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

The lineage continues in Front, near Race, No. 146, under 
tlie firm of Butcher & Brother, sons of Amos W., and grand- 
sons of my old and familiar friend, Job Butcher ; they occupy 
the site of the late Henry Pratt's dwelling.* 

Eobeson & Paul were identities of No. 53, and their exten- 
sive flour and provision store there was a wide-spread notor- 
iety. They were there already in 1797, and for many years 
after. 

The corner of Arch and Water, was the grocery store and 
residence of the Mr. John Clark heretofore noticed. 

His brother, Mr. Jacob Clark, who had for his clerk our 
own Moses Kempton, the present, and for many years past, 
very valuable Accounting Warden of Christ Church, was the 
business grocer of next door below. Permit me to add here, 
that the Clark family were of the most respectable part of our 
community. 

• Job Butcher died Februai'y, 1819, aged seventy-seven years; and his son 
Amos died in 1846, aged sixty-five years. 



PHILADELPHIA AND IlEB MEBCHA.NTS. 81 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

AVater street — Arch to Race — Isaac Austin, at the corner — INIrs. Burkhard — 
Isaac Wainwright — William Peddle — Timothy Paxson — Latimer & IMurdock 
— J. Vanuxem — Steinmetz — Major Hodgdon — L. Huron — Goldsmith — Elder 
— Summerl & Brown — Andrew Hodge — Dr. Hodge — Henry Pratt — "Wilson, 
Boat Builder — Rugan & Rhodes — James Crawford — John Warder & Son — 
Harvey & Davis — Capt. Davis. 

To this northeast corner of Arch and "Water street, attaches 
some notoriety, inasmuch as our late celebrated. Cora. Dale 
was united here in the bonds of matrimony, to a niece of Isaac 
Austin, then and there residing as a responsible watchmaker; 
and in addition, a peep on the hill finds the early bell-ringer 
of Christ Church, who practiced upon the octave in his garret, 
in order to perfect his peals on Sunday ; but, more important 
still, next below him, sat our subsequent eminent Bays New- 
combe, delving into Coke and Blackstone, founding a legal 
reputation, Mdiich he attained in after life. 

Leaving this point, the Widow Burkhard claims notice, 
next to the corner on Water street, where she and her hus- 
band resided. No. 57, in 1793, and adjoins the industrial 
block and pump-maker depot of Isaac Wainwright. These 
premises run through to the wharf and the water itself, for at 
the foot of his yard there was a dock for the soaking and 
safe keeping of logs, a very sink of mortality to those who 
ventured to run their role from wharf to wharf, a memorable 
fact to your author, who, but for the timely hand of a larger 
6 



82 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

boy, and the extra capillary of his bead, would certainly 
not bave been bere now to tell a tale of days and things lang 
syne. 

Humbly, but vastly important to maritime requirements, 
the saw, the auger, and the chisel noised their daily services to 
shape and bore a pump, or fit a sheeve and block to the hand 
of an inquiring mariner. 

Mr. Wainwright was perhaps the most popular block and 
pumpmaker of his day. 

His son Jonathan succeeded him in the business, and con- 
tinued it for many years. Thence he removed to Kensington, 
and established a saw-mill and board-yard, and at the same 
time acting as President of the Kensington Bank. 

He resigned the presidency creditable to his services, and 
retired to his more active business calling, which, with his 
sons, he yet industriously pursues. 

In this connection I take occasion to state, that his brother 
William was the persecuted President of the Commercial 
Bank : for upon investigation, he was honorably acquitted. 

Isaac Wainwright, the sire, died in July, 1844, in his eighty- 
third year. 

William Peddle was an oak cooper, next above, whose 
premises extended through to the wharf, north side of Wain- 
wright's dock. 

A public alley to the wharf; along the north side of Ped- 
dle's premises, could it speak, might tell of the battle-ground 
on the wharf, where belligerents met to settle disputes vi et 
armis, and gymnastic gyrations from the storm of their 
bosoms. 

There were "bullies" in those days, who seemed to take 
pride in championship, some of whom of fair reputation I 
could revive here — but let their dotings, dottings and doings 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 83 

be ! It was, however, battle-ground to wbicb appoint- 
ments were made, and upon which the ring of some depth 
hailed the victor, or bore the vanquished to quarters of peace, 
and repair of damage. 

It must be observed here, however, that they were not 
prize fights, but more exuberances of skill and bravura than 
ebullitions of wrath : and all this sixty years ago ! 

Craving forbearance for this rude incident of the times, my 
return to Water street leads me to more respectable and more 
profitable doings. 

At the upper corner of the alley here referred to, our well- 
known citizen, Timothy Paxson, bought, sold and delivered 
flour by the quantity. 

Mr. Paxson was a staid, steady, plain Friend, wending his 
way, morning, noon and evening, from his dwelling at No. 
81 Arch, north side, above Front street, to his long-standing 
haunt of No. 65 North Water street, before and long after 
1802. In 1799, he resided at No. 16 Key's alley. 

Latimer & Murdock were also prominent dealers in flour, 
next above Mr. Paxson, a very respectable house, in good 
business standing, and of desirable social relations. 

Mr. Latimer — more especially known to me as a Christian 
gentleman — was a very neat and handsome man, medium 
height, stout, but well proportioned, and highly esteemed in 
Church and State. 

In immediate connection in this line, we had John Stein- 
metz, Jr., a wholesale grocer, and Major Samuel Hodgdon, 
Superintendent of the Public Stores of the United States. 

James Vanuxem, a rather small-sized, neat, and gentle- 
manly-looking man, was a merchant of some note, at the 
third door from the corner of the alley leading to the famous 
Red Stores, 1799 ; but afterward, in 1802, was located at No 



84 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

186 Market street, next below General Washington's bouse, 
south side, near Sixth street. 

The venerable William Smith was next resident at the 
upper corner of the alley, and was there also the opulent re- 
cipient of the profits of his West India plantations. 

As a chain of family identity, I note that his memory is 
perpetuated in the Wager and the Huber family ; Peter Wa- 
ger having married a daughter of his son Stafford, and Tobias 
Huber, a daughter of his daughter, Mrs. (Doctor) Elder, of 
whom I am free to say here, that Mrs. Wager was a beau ideal 
of beauty in form and feature — one of the prettiest women of 
her day. 

Doctor Elder was resident next above Mr. Smith, and 
assorted the tone of the neighborhood ; but the mercantile 
operations of Summerl & Brown were next above, in bold 
relief, and their counting-house here, and the dwelling of 
Joseph Summerl next door, were marked points of their 
whereabouts. 

They were prominent in mercantile life, and popular in 
that community. 

Andrew Hodge was another of the fraternity of merchants 
near by ; and again an " M. D.," in the person and profession 
of Hugh Hodge, assorted the respectability of the gathering 
here. 

Here we reach the domicil of Henry Pratt, at ISTo. 93, in 
1795. 

This was a first-class three-story brick house, with iron 
railing in front of the lower windows, with slab pave inside ; 
the railing there was a defense against the too near approach 
of the many passing sailors. 

An alley of twelve or fifteen feet separated the dwelling 
from the stores and couutino-.house of Pratt & Kiutziuo;, at 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 85 

No. 95, where Mr. Pratt and Pratt & Kintzing, had at their 
elbows the late Manuel Eyre, and my venerable friend, 
Charles Massey, as active assistants in the requirements of the 
counting-house. 

The upper stories of the store — which was of four stories — 
crossed over the alley by an arch. The whole ground-plot 
was about sixty feet front on Water street. 

A boat-building emporium divei'sified the field of mercan- 
tile doings ; and John Wilson, the proprietor, enjoyed the 
benefits of his skill and the fruits of his labor. It was a pop- 
ular resort for the lovers of aquatic sports. 

Eugan & Rhodes "jvere well-known shipping merchants on 
these premises, in 1809 — after John Wilson. 

Captain Rugan is still with us ; and we reunite him to his 
occupation of fifty years ago, with all due respect, and thus 
revive his memory, and that of his early associates, to by- 
gone days. 

James Crawford, another shipping merchant, adjoined the 
above, on the north, in 1798 ; but in 1806, John Warder 
& Sons continued the mercantile life and spirit of this 
spot. 

The corner of Race and Water streets was the ship-chand- 
lery of Harvey & Davis. 

Mr. Harvey was unknown to me; but Captain Davis still 
lives in my memorj^, as a well-dressed, gentlemanly-looking 
man, of apparent even tenor and temper. 

This Captain Davis, after his servitude in ropes, tar and 
tackles, purchased the Rittenhouse estate, at the northwest 
corner of Arch and Seventh streets, of about sixty feet on 
Arch street, where the houses of the Messrs. Smith, next 
above the corner, now stanc], and one hundred and twenty 
feet on Seventh street. 



86 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 



CHAPTER XIY. 

Water street — Kace to Vine — Vine to Callowhill — Thomas Alibone — Boyer 
Brooks — Robert McKean — Dutihl & Wachsmuth — Daniel Thunn — Abraham 
Piesch — Jacob Bright — Endress's Brewery — George Campbell — John Brit- 
ton — Joseph Thomas — West & Jeanes — William West, of the above firm — 
Brown's Biscuit Bakery — Stewart & Knight, Lumber Merchants. 

The northeast corner of Race and Water streets was long 
and well established, already in 1793, as a mart for the sale 
of flour by Thomas Alibone, the grandfather of the late un- 
fortunate President of the Bank of Pennsylvania. 

This old gentleman — for so he appeared to me in 1800 — 
was amongst the most respectable of his calling ; and by a 
" faithful continuance in well-doing," retired upon the reward 
of his integrity and his labors. 

Boyer Brooks was his next neighbor and cotemporary, a 
boat-builder of notoriety, besides being the author of Brooks's 
Court, in Front street above Race. 

The dwelling and counting-house of Robert McKean, a 
shipping merchant, son of Governor McKean, of 1799, was 
as well known next above. 

But next above this, there was an old timepiece in the 
person and presence of Daniel Thunn, of the firm of Daniel 
& Vincent Thunn, merchants, there in 1797 in the German 
trade. 
I Misfortune befell the house ; and my venerable friend 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 87 

Daniel became thereafter clerk to the late Capt. Man, where 
in the rugged office, over the former's stable on the west side 
of the yard of the Captain's residence, he calculated interests, 
commissions and fractions, until he came down in an audi- 
ble whisper to "null vom null und niclits^'' i. e. '' nothing 
from nothing, and nothing remains," which became a very 
current joke of the Captain's whenever he spoke of Mr. 
Thunn. 

He was a very respectable relic of the vicissitudes of mer- 
cantile life, and served the Captain for several years, when he 
retired entirely from the changes and chances of business 
reponsibilities and calculations of interests, to " Eapp's Har- 
mony," where in due time he was gathered to his fathers. 

An alley here to Smith's wharf bounded some old stores 
on Water street and their vacant portions on the wharf, of 
which an alley above was the .northern boundary. 

The counting-house of Abraham Piesch presents itself at 
the upper corner of this alley. 

Mr. Piesch was one of the most enterprising shipping mer- 
chants of his day, 1800, and onwards. He built more vessels, 
large and small, than any of his compeers. In the war of 
1812 he started twelve schooners on the stocks at the same 
time, to run the guantlet of blockade or pursuit. 

He was largely concerned in the "West India trade during 
the revolution in St. Dominsro, and in the East India and 
European in after time. 

He really was a man of mercantile prowess, withal a 
modest, unassuming, mild-mannered Swiss gentleman. He 
was shrewd and calculating, but the malignity of war and 
the cupidity and villainy of some of his employees, was more 
than shrewdness or human foresight could forefend, and he 



88 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

fell a victim to treacliery as well as tlie vast oclcls of an open 
and a powerful foe: else, from $100,000 to a $150,000, would 
ha've been tlie balance in bis favor even after bis failure in 
1813-14. But alas! after all bis acumen in tbe various busy 
projects of mercantile life, be was sbrunk by tbe cold em- 
braces of poverty, and even nudged by tbe colder sboulders 
of many wbo had before done bim reverence. But such 
is life ! 

Jacob Brigbt's occupancy was divided by an alley to tbe 
wharf, on both sides of wbich were bis stores, besides an 
apartment for large scales for the accommodation of appli- 
cants for a knowledge of the weight of their wares. 

Bright's wharf and premises were well-known, and their 
proprietor equally so as a prominent owner of stores, but 
not a merchant. 

A dwelling next above and an alley on the north side to 
the wharf, brings us to a brewery under the proprietorship 
and direction of Zachariah Endress. 

The most remarkable incumbency of this line was tbe office 
of Eegister of Wills, in charge of George Campbell, where 
be also resided. 

This George Campbell was the father of our late fellow- 
citizen, George Campbell of Arch street, tbe third door below 
Sixth street, north side, wbo died on tbe tenth of June, 1855, 
in his seventy -tbird year. 

The board-yard and counting-house of John Britton cor- 
nered this square. It was necessarily of considerable dimen- 
sions, and no doubt gave acumen to mensuration, spirit to 
mechanics, and life to cart wheels, and sometimes bulk to the 
craft that awaited an export. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 89 

VINE TO CALLOWHILL. 

Salt, the most invaluable commodity to all animal nature, 
was here, at the northeast corner of Yine and Water street, in 
abundance, and Joseph Thomas, West & Jeanes, and Wm. 
West of the firm of West & Jeanes, were successive operators 
and very extensive dealers in the article of salt. 

The domains were large, and extended northward nearly 
two hundred feet, divided, however, by an alley to the 
wharf. 

A biscuit bakery, by William Brown, was another popular 
resort for foreign and domestic supplies. No. 169 heralded 
the whereabout, and its active proprietor hastened the right 
hand of fellowship to the patrons of his skill; and now, 
except the board-yard and counting-house of Stewart & 
Knight, which also compassed a large lot, there is nothing 
particular to note to the corner, which was a tavern. 

In presenting this view of Water street and the continua- 
tion of the mercantile interest of Philadelphia in its scope, I 
might and could have added much to the catalogue of life 
that hailed the rising sun and again retired to the hearth as 
it slept in the west ; but, as even now, there were ever and 
anon inns and outs, which without becoming a succession of 
Directories, I could not — because it was not my purpose to 
— follow. 

I have endeavored to show who and what represented the 
commercial interest and influence of our city, within certain 
limits of time, and I trust have not fallen far short of my 
purpose; nor could I with such intelligible aid as longevity 
has afforded from its verdure. 

The ancient and very venerable Dr. Collin of the Swedes 
Church was a reliable chronicle of the olden time ; and right 



90 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

liappy am I in tlie experience of elastiC; graphic, and com- 
prehensive intellectual memories even in the yellow leaf of 
human nature; which now, with a very lively picture of the 
days of my own yonth, encourages and impels me to the work 
and emboldens its truth. And thus far "Water street: but 
Front street too has its claims, and I shall proceed to show 
what they were. 



PHILADELPHIA AXD HER MERCHANTS. 91 



CHAPTEE XV. 

Front street — East side — Callowhill to Vine — Christlieb Bartling— Manuel 
Eyre — Clawson's tavern — Durham Boats — Joseph Morehane — His School- 
house. 

Seeing that the active elite of life, as well social as mer- 
cantile, of sixty years ago, was not confined to Water street 
and the wharf, and that important influences — connected more 
or less with that region, or otherwise of general interest — 
ranged on the avenue above, I find it but consistent with my 
project to pass, scan and cull the line of Front street from 
ray original place of beginning, Callowhill street, to my 
intended terminus, the north side of South street; and although 
in the review of the limit of this chapter the sources are few, 
and less fertile than those past and those to come, yet it is not 
entirely void of interest, if but recalling its original and 
antique face. 

In doing this I may advert to a row of small two and three- 
story brick houses, of sombre weather-beaten hue even sixty 
years ago, and tell of a gap here and there between, as air- 
holes from the river to fan the more condensed atmosphere 
above ; or show the forethought of Father Penn in facilitating 
ingress and egress to and from Front to "Water street by an 
occasional flight of stone steps. And indeed it will be but a 
small tribute to the memory of our old friend Christlieb 
Bartling, to remember him at No. 225, who from that spot in 



92 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

1802, took liis course to some depot of kimber to establish 
its quality by his inspection, or glance at his stalwart frame 
as with measured step he made his Sabbath day's journey to 
and from Dr. Mayer's church, as each returning Sabbath 
invited him to that sanctuary. 

And here too we may see the youthful but manly Manuel 
Eyre, as his next neighbor, wending his way to his early 
business associate in furtherance of issues and profits to the 
firm of Byre & Massey. 

Such were the current possessions of this neighborhood ; 
but there were two other points of marked annals that belong 
to the history of that compass. 

The first was the rear end of a tavern, commencing and 
fronting principally on Water street, a few doors above 
Yine street, having the " Eising Sun" for its sign on Water 
street and the " Constitution and Guerri^re" on Front street — 
it was known as Clawson's tavern, and was the popular resort 
of the Durham boatmen, who making fast their craft below 
came up hither to recount their toils in poling, or rowing their 
long-nosed craft through the dangers of shallow streams to 
the laborious rowing of the deeper waters of the Delaware. 

These Durham boats were the usual facilities of conveyance 
from the flour mills above to the storehouses here below. 

They were long and capacious, with prow at both ends, 
and were steered by a long oar, swung on a pivot at 
either end, which, however, was more effective on a smooth 
than a rock-rippled stream, which at the rapids at Trenton 
defied the skill of the oarsman, and sometimes wrecked his 
presumption, at the cost of a good load of flour, of which the 
boats held from one to two hundred barrels. 

They derived their name from Durham Creek, Durham 
Township, Bucks County. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANT3. 93 

But there was a spot of more personal interest to your 
author, and though fearful in its nature, was important in 
effect. 

On the very summit of the hill, next or near the corner of 
Vine street, there was perched an old yellow frame cottage, 
unfenced of boundary, and free and open to its appurtenances 
— open to the exuberance of elastic youth — or the arena of 
study to the more staid and sober host. It was an open 
common, accessible at all points, and hence the more memor- 
able to wayward youth. 

On this spot th^ lapse moments of scholastic duty found 
vent in sliding from the top to the bottom of the hill, to the 
wear and tear of unmentionables, and the total annihilation 
of our heels. 

Joseph Morehane, however, was the pro tern, proprietor of the 
domain, and the centre of gravity in the cot on the summit. 

Here the schoolmaster was seldom abroad, but on the con- 
trary, his tenacious presence, with his flexible rattan, was a 
rod of terrorem to undisciplined youth, and the active evi- 
dence that to spare the rod would be to spoil the child, his 
forbearance truly was great ; but the memento before us 
sometimes trespassed upon ours. 

, These were the days of hobgoblins, ghosts and witches, of 
which some of the elder boys took advantage to test the 
powers of their master and his old lady, by an inverted horse- 
shoe over the door to check their egress ; but, alas for the 
prank, the penalty of the rattan was the hasty successor to 
the sport. 

Although our master was scarcely threescore years of age, 
extreme youth thought of nothing but extreme age in him ; 
the battery of his mouth was gone, and the jaws cringed for 
a substitute. Moreover, being small in stature, and sparse of 



94 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

flesh, he appeared to shrink in the cold embrace of old 
time. 

I have been informed by those who knew him better than 
I could have done, that he was a well educated man — a 
literati — a man of good character ; and in the latter part of his 
life, employed as book-keeper to Samuel Lehman, of the 
Northern Liberties, ship-smith. 

Mr. Morehane lived to the good old age of eighty-eight 
years, and died on the 19th of December, 1831. 



PHILADELPHIA AXD HER MERCHANTS. 95 



CHAPTEE XYI. 

Front street, West side — Callowhill to Vine — A Black Bear Tavern — Isaac W. 
Nori'is — Isaiah Jeanes — Oapt. James King — Joseph Copperthw,aite — " Bully 
White" — Daniel Bacon — William West — Fitch's Steamboat, 1788. 

The west side of this square was lined with, a better class 
of houseS; and several of our more prominent citizens were 
resident there. 

It was, however, not without its mixture of small tene- 
ments, and they appropriated to divers nses of stores, grocer- 
ies, and amongst others, a distillery and a tavern. 

This tavern was known by its sign of a Black Bear, and 
was situated about one third of the way south of the corner 
of Callowhill, occupying some forty feet front, having a wide 
opening at its side, as an entrance to the grounds in the rear 
for the accommodations pertinent to the entertainment of man 
and horse. 

Isaac W. ISTorris, once a supercago, afterward, 1811, a ship- 
chandler at the southeast corner of Water and Yine streets, 
occupied one of the best three- storv brick houses, about mid- 
way of the row. 

Mr. Norris was a remarkably fine-looking, well-built and 
handsome man, and as gentle, in proportion, to all intents 
and purposes ; a very pleasurable review of my own per- 
sonal business transactions with him in my onset in business 
life. 



96 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

He died January 5tli, 1847, aged sixty-two years. 

The root, Isaiah, of the present family of Jeanes's, salt mer- 
chants, at one time in connection with the "West's ; and some 
of the branches were resident, in 1805, at No. 196, and in 1811, 
more in detail perhaps, at No. 208. 

The place that knew the old-time fixture, Captain James 
King, but now knows him no more, was No. 210, a first-class 
three-story brick, with porch and portico, wherein the Cap- 
tain was resident for many years. 

He was crippled by the loss of his foot, occasioned by a 
throw from his carriage, and which confined his locomotion 
to a wheel-chair, in which he passed himself from spot to spot 
as call required. 

His competency, however, mitigated in some degree his 
misfortune, and spared him the pain or inconvenience of 
thought for the morrow — that was already guarded. 

Capt. King was the half-brother of our late citizen, Joseph 
Worrel, whose mother, commonly called "Nanny King," was 
as well the mother of Mr. Worrel.* 

Near by Captain King, at No. 204:, was the seat of justice 
and terror to evil doers, where Joseph Copperthwaite admin- 
istered the law, and by testimony imposed the penalty or 
discharged the accused, 1802. Prior to this, Mr. Copper- 
thwaite under the authority of High Sheriff vested in him, 
dealt out the wrath of the law against delinquent debtors and, 
perhaps, candidates for more stringent measures. 

He was High Sheriff^ and had to perform the duties — profit- 

* Nanny King was a lively and anecdotal relic of Revolutionary times. She 
was a woman of high spirit, of plain and very honest bearing. She lived by 
herself, under the care of the Captain, at the head of Goddard's alley, in 
Second street, running eastward, a little above Vine, 1798, 1800, and onward, 
to her final exit. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 97 

able, disagreeable, or repulsive— of that office. All this sixty 
years ago. 

There was, however, at No. 193, perhaps the most notorious 
individual of our community at that time, long before, and 
even long after 1800. 

Capt. William White, generally known as "Bully White," 
was of Eevolutionary date, even in old age a steady old salt, 
of iron frame and feature, worn stern by practical necessities ; 
said to have commanded a privateer in the Eevolution, and 
subsequently a playfellow with the froth of Neptune, ' 

This well-built, heavy, round-shouldered, notorious mari- 
ner, with heavy, jutting gray eyebrows, and slow but charac- 
teristic step, made his daily sortie from the house of Captain 
Joseph Vansise, from No. 193, where and whence he was as 
well known as any man in Philadelphia ; commanding respect 
for his person, bis indomitable courage, and his general 
history. 

His countenance, at rest, was by no means savage, but 
rather kindly. 

I have often seen him, but never with any repulsive feel- 
ing. His calling, its duties, and his judgment, made him a 
disciplinarian and a commander to be respected ; but if Cap- 
tain or " Bully White" was any thing but a liberal and— 
worldly called — good-hearted man, his contour belied him. 

He owned and commanded a brig, called the "Betsy," 
noted as a fast sailer. Captain White was patronized, socially 
and commercially, by Harvey & Davis, of Eace and Water 
streets, ship-chandlers. 

It would be a slight to pass a tradesman of as much im- 
portance to the piscatory sportsman, as was friend Daniel 
Bacon, who, a few doors above the corner of Vine, made his 
calling known by a well-represented shad, or something like 
7 



98 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

it, suspended by hook and line, over liis door here. Here, 
fiisliing-tackle, to all intents and purposes, was to be found ; 
and here too, in the early part of this century, was the resort 
of connoisseurs and adepts in the art of catching fish. 

William West, the pioneer in the salt trade, cornered the 
row with a mansion of dignified appearance ; whence, from the 
ease and comforts of his family hearth, he could oversee his 
business quarters at the corner below, and be at the com- 
mand of any emergency. 

The width of the street, east of Front, here gave the north- 
west corner of Front and Vine the advantage of an unob- 
structed view of the wharf and the Delaware. 

It was opposite to this opening off Yine-street wharf, in the 
middle of the stream, in the year 1788, that John Fitch's 
steamboat — the first discovery of that mode of applying 
stearn — made her debut, with her crude machinery, in her 
first trip to Burlington, N. J., passing over the tide at the 
rate of three miles an hour, to the great joy of the multitude 
on the wharf witnessing the feat. Her paddles were in the 
shape of large oars, when in an upright position, broad at 
the top and tapering downward ; and when set in motion, cre- 
ated a furor of huzzas. 

The presence and eye-witness of my friend, Mr, Charles 
Massey, at this exhibition, is a good voucher for this fact, 
who further informs me that Fitch was assisted in his scheme 
by Lewis Braill, of Brewer's alley, a blacksmith, who made 
the boiler and other apparatus to complete the machinery, 
aided by Henry Yoigt, a watchmaker, in Second above Eace ; 
they were both men of great mechanical genius. 

This embryo of steamboat navigation, was a birth of tribu 
lation, patience, and expense, of which the real parent, after 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 99 

thus laying tlie track for tlie prosperity of the million, him- 
self died poor, neglected, unwept. 

It is said that Fitch caught the idea from a tea-kettle, in 
the spout of which he had fixed a cork — perhaps to hasten his 
supper by confining the steam — but the increasing force of 
the vapor displaced it ; and the forceful " pop !" gave force to 
thought — thought to ingenuity and the trophy to persever- 
ance. 



100 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 



CHAPTEE XVII. 

Front street, East side — Vine to Race — Isaac Jones — Abraham Piesch — John 
Wharton — William Fling, Senior and Junior — Peter Brown — Praise Wood- 
man. 

From this corner, down to the steps, an avenue to Water 
street, about midway of the square, there is nothing particuhir 
to note. The houses, already in 1800, were old, weather- 
beaten and frost-bitten ; the basement being a very available 
entrance, covered by an almost perpendicular cellar-door, ad- 
mitting a full-sized person, without bend or nod, to the apart- 
ment under the first floor. 

Isaac Jones, however, is not to be passed in silence ; for at 
the south corner of the steps above alluded to, his snuff and 
tobacco emporium was as well known as himself as propri- 
etor, and the old gentleman was not unmindful of his im- 
portance. His profession was available, for snuff, tobacco and 
cigars were desirable luxuries even of that day. 

Tlie humble and unpretending Abraham Piesch was his 
next door neighbor, resident there, and occupying through to 
Water street, the lower story being the depot of his imports ; 
where the hills and hollows of coffee-bags were enviable in- 
vitations to his " cubs" to play hide-and-seek, to which your 
humble servant was a gladsome party. 

As my early friend, Mr. Piesch, has gone down to the 
valley of oblivion, unwept and unsung by his mercantile asso- 



PHILADELPHIA AXD HER MERCHANTS. 101 

ciates, I cannot pass him here without again referring to his 
character and standing, as a man of wealth and prosperity to 
the turn of his tide, yet a man of humble bearing, of equable 
deportment without reference to grades, with a currency of 
benevolence passing him very acceptably through his various 
relations in life, as a very mild, soft-spoken, untempered 
gentleman. 

And here I take temporary leave of Abraham Piesch, and 
introduce my reader to 

John Wharton, of No. 165, next door below; this gentle- 
man — as denominated in those days — was a surgeon-barber, 
and heralded by a tin sign on his window-shutter, represent- 
ing a female figure seated in sickly attitude, with outstretched 
arm, either awaiting the click of the lancet, or shying at the 
crimson spurt into the bowl held by the thoughtful San- 
grado. 

Mr. Wharton was a man of character, and the determina- 
tion of his countenance, sharpened by an oblique cast of his 
eye, were unmistakable warnings that he was not to be trifled 
with. 

A few doors below, at No. 155, in a two-story brick house,* 
a little back from the line, having a pale-fence in front, and 
gate of entrance, dwelt a popular house painter and glazier 
of his day. 

William Fling seemed to be the chosen to paint and beau- 
tify the steeple of Christ Church, and all belonging to it. 
And often have I seen him, and his son who succeeded him, 
or some of their employees, pendent from the spire, two hun- 
dred feet in mid-air, in a deep basket, plying the brush with 
perfect nonchalance, to the admiration of some and the fear 

* This house is still standing, under new No. 223, occupied as a cooper- 
shop, enclosed bj* a high, board fence. 



102 PHILADELPPIIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

and terror of others of tbe many lookers-on below ; but I never 

heard of an accident from that source. 

"William Fling, Jr., was, in stature and general appearance, 

a fac simile of his senior, both men of courage, for in that 

day it was a feat to venture two hundred feet above the heads 

below. And whether they, or either of them, trusted to the 

" Yo, heave ho !" below, or sent up a maintop-sail man as a 

substitute, they endorsed the project, and were responsible for 

results. 

Peter Brown's blacksmith shop occupied a space a little 
« 
below, No. 141; it was a frame, and run through to Water 

street. 

Praise Woodman must have been notorious for name, if 
even nature, education, or occupation beclouded the popularity 
due to his, or her existence, for I do not know how to sex that 
surname. Suffice it to say, that, in 1795, Praise Woodman 
kept a boarding-house at the northeast corner of Eace and 
Front streets, and thus cornered the row now reviewed. 

The row, from Jones's down to the corner, escaped the con- 
flagration of 1850, leaving even yet a good sample of the 
olden time. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 103 



CHAPTEE XYIIL 

Front street, West side — Vine to Race — Stackhouse — Starr — William Rush — 
Rebecca Inksom — Jacob AVayne — John B. Ackley — Solomon Park — George 
Vanderslice — Robert Bethel — General Irvine — Peter Maisson — Basky Mar- 
shal—William Rigby — John Stille, Jr. — Bowyer Brookes — Rebecca Jones — 
Rosanna, and her daughter Mary Donnel. 

m 

Desultory as may liave been some of the marks and 
remarks in. the line of march along Front street, thus 
far, that now before us has even more ^oi7it d'a^j^ui for 
the life, natural, scientific, and historical, of sixty years 
ago. 

In many neighborhoods there are certain nuclei, stereotyp- 
ing their identity by successive generations; their grand- 
fathers were born, reared, and educated there, and progeny 
claims antiquity to the spot of their sires. 

Thus the Stackhouses and the Starrs, particularly the 
former, who date even from 1793, were amongst the earliest 
residents of that quarter, and types of their generations to this 
day, they contributed their share to the prominent variety, 
and enlivened the busy scenes of mercantile and mechanical 
industry; for whilst Amos Stackhouse beat the "Cooper's 
march" at ISTo. 168, John Starr retired daily from the labors 
of selling flour and salt to No. 152. They were respectable 
tenants there, and a part of its active life. 

But there was more than ordinary interest in this compass. 



10-i PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 

The prow of the dignified merchantmen awaited its embellish- 
ment here, and the skill of an eminent sculptor became the 
pride of a shipowner. 

Mr. William Rush was a carver of distinction, and without 
a rival in the United States or Europe. 

The figure-heads of most all of our merchant ships were the 
work of his hand, and generally admitted to be good likenesses 
of their originals. His " William Penn/' " General Washing- 
ton/' "Franklin," "Yoltaire," "Rousseau," and ''General 
Wade Hampton," with many others, were amongst the 
prominent specimens of his art. 

They were full-length, life-like, full-dressed figures, the 
G-enerals in regimentals, and the others in plain garb. 

The representation of the Crucifixion, in St. Augustine's 
Church, was the boast of the city, for the accuracy of its de- 
lineations at the hands of William Rush. 

Time, in due course, scathed the features, and the frag- 
ments of the former ; after they had served their day and 
generation — but alas, for a reckless mob — the torch of the 
incendiary of 1844, fired by an unholy, unrighteous, and in- 
human spirit of persecution, destroyed the temple, the altar, 
and its adornments at one fell swoop. 

This piece of sculpture was of life size, and generally con- 
sidered his chef cVoeuvre. 

But, thanks to the careful leading of some of our former 
city Fathers, who protected and preserved the life-sized 
female figure with her spouting swan, that once ornamented 
the Centre Square, where, as a fountain, from a rather 
careless heap of rocks, in front of the white marble build- 
ing, she stood alone, and wa,s the admiration of the daily 
throng. 

This figure now perpetuates the memory of its skillful 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 105 

sculptor, on a ledge in a nook of Fairmount, where, whilst it 
contributes to the beautiful blending of art with nature, she 
spreads the fame of Eush in rainbow tints, fed and impelled 
from the crystal fountain at her feet. 

The studio of Mr. Eush was a two-story frame, numbered 
172, a few doors above Key's alley. There was a large log 
under his front windows, from which, we little boys, on our 
way to, and from school, peeped and wondered at the trans- 
formation of unwrought timber to the form and appearance 
of a human being, 

Mr. Eush was rather below medium height, well formed, 
genteel appearance, and very intelligent countenance. 

He died at the age of seventy-six, on the 17th January, 
1833. 

Let it not be the step from the sublime to the ridiculous, to 
come down from the arts and sciences, to "kiss a cup, and 
pass it to the rest" — and yet a good cup of tea is not to be 
despised. 

A very popular emporium for this luxury was at No. 168, 
where Eebecca Inkson, 1795, and long after, dealt out the 
material for the social beverage, and was patronized to her 
own comforts by the very vox populi, as well for her assort- 
ment of teas as for her appendages of dry goods and trim 
mings. 

A mixture is not complete without ingredients, and there- 
fore permit me to notice our old friend, Jacob Wayne, cabinet 
and chair-maker, of No. 166, and the famous spinning-wheel, 
that insignia'd the occupation, in front and over the door of 
John B. Ackley, at the corner of Fearis's court, the first 
inlet below Key's alley. No. 150, in 1802. 

There was a passage through here to Second street, princi- 



106 PHILADELPHIA AND HEE MERCHANTS. 

pally for the accommodation of Friends to their meeting-house 
in Key's alley. 

This same John B. Ackley was afterward druggist and 
apothecary, and sold paints, at the west end of this 
avenue. 

Solomon Park was a fixture in this neighborhood, from 
and before 1791, in which, within a small compass, he was 
variously located, but my personal data finds, and knows him 
at No. 146, in 1800. 

Here, in a gray, weather-beaten, old-fashioned three-story 
brick, was the watch-making, mending and repairing estab- 
lishment of Solomon Park. 

The front entrance was high above the pavement, and 
could only be reached by a high flight of steps, beside which 
an almost perpendicular cellar-door — apparently leaning 
against the wall — closed the entrance to the basement or 
cellar. 

From this spot emerged, from day to day, the tall, gaunt 
figure of Solomon Park ; his movement was pendulum-like, 
and apparently in time with its clock. He was, to all intents 
and purposes, an old time-piece, in keep with the rack and 
racket of his elliptic bulk-window and its old-fashioned con- 
tents. 

Although a model of primitive simplicity in apparel, there 
was sportive fancy in the man, for he had the reputation of 
being a "ISTimrod" in the chase, and kept a " rosinant" to fur- 
ther his fancy, which, with his master, grew gray in the ser- 
vice of his fanciful pastime. 

Variety does not cease here — a barber-shop belongs to the 
range, and due respect must be allotted to George Vander- 
slice, the proprietor, especially as Mr. Yanderslice was not a 
thing of a day, but flourished in his trade here, and carried 



PHILADELPHIA AND HEE MERCHANTS. 107 

his occupation to Eace above Third street, where for many 
years after he was the popular tonsure of the day. 

He was a good Methodist, and stood well in the com- 
munity. 

The house next below the corner of Coates's alley, was a 
mansion of some dignity, having a front of about thirty feet, 
and proportioned in height ; it was the largest house in that 
square ; it stands a little oblique from the proper line, arising 
probably from its erection before the proper grade was laid 
down. 

It was built, 1764,* by William Eush, black and ship- 
smith, the father-in-law of its occupant, Eobert Bethel, in 
1791, who lived there for many years. Mr. Bethel, the 
grandparent of our present Eobert Bethel, Esq., was a ship- 
chandler on Bickley's wharf, by profession — a highly respecta- 
ble old gentleman, and socially in keeping with his character 
and standing. 

In connection with his wife's family, the venerable General 
Irvine was a fireside companion. 

This old gentleman was an associate of General Washing- 
ton, having served under him in the American Eevolution. 

He was a pink of neatness, whose black suit, short-clothes, 
and silver-buckled shoes and old-fashioned cocked-hat, ren- 
dered him in appearance more of a civilian, or even a D.D., 
than a tactician in fire-arms. 

If, however, his respectability had been measured by his 
size, he would have lost in degrees. But not so ; his character 

* This mansion is now in the occupancy of Peter Maisson, whose extensive 
biscuit bakery is nest door above, on the corner of Coates's alley. 

Mr. Bethel died in Holmesburg, April 17, 1852, in the seventy-sixth year 
of his age. 



108 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

and bearing gave tone to his position, making his mark upon 
some one to memorialize his existence. 

He was, as hinted above, of medium height, light built, 
very neat in apparel, very measured in his gait, and had 
more the appearance of a Divine than a brandisher of sword 
and shield. 

General James Irvine is entitled to the following further 
notice. 

First. He occupied the mansion above-mentioned from the 
close of the Eevolution to the year 1819. 

Second. Although a hatter by trade, in early life he became 
a soldier of two wars, being engaged in 1764 on the frontier 
of our State in Indian warfare ; and again in the American 
Eevolution, under General Washington, losing three fingers 
of his right hand on the plains of Germantown. 

He served after the war in several of the Councils of the 
State, and died in 1^19, an aged veteran of time and labor, 
full of the honors due to the merits of his life and character. 

His house (above) became, by will I presume, the property 
of Mrs. Francis Irvine Brown, daughter of Captain Eobert 
Bethel — for before he settled down in a ship-chandlery, he 
ivas a sea-captain — and was a near kinsman of my venerable 
cocked-hat, General James Irvine. 

In passing on to the corner of Eace street, it is but civil to 
notice Mrs. Hannah Marshall, whose boarding-house cornered 
Brooks's court. She was well-known there in 1802, and was 
succeeded by her daughter Bathsheba — known as Bashy Mar- 
shall — who continued there for many years after, but — 

In 1799, the firm of Ducoing k Lacombe had their count- 
ing-house at this corner; they were in the Bordeaux d,nd 
West India trade, large importers of wines, brandies and 
silks; their counting-house was afterward removed into 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 109 

Coates's alley near Front, where in 1802, our present fellow- 
citizen, Mr, J. P. Fontanges, served them as clerk for several 
years. 

Mr. Fontanges was afterward of the firm of Chapron, 
Frenaye & Co., in the silk and ribbon business, at the north- 
west corner of Seventh and Market streets. 

He is now a retired merchant and has his office in Gold 
street, south side of the bank of Pennsylvania. 

The corner of Pace and Front was a bunch of old red 
frames, the edge of which, east and west, was occupied for 
many years as a cabinet-maker shop by William Pigby, 
whose popularity was coequal with the rest of his fortunes. 

In connection with this square, it may be proper to note 
that it had four insertions from Vine street : first, Fearis's 
court ; second McCullough's court ; third, Coates's alley ; and 
fourth, Brooks's court. Of these, though our subsequently 
opulent citizen, John Stille, Jr., occupied a rather imposing 
three-story brick house, with pediment front, at the head of 
McCullough's court, Brooks's court was by no means least 
in importance. 

Bowyer Brooks, Sen. & Jun., boat-builders, were men of 
business on the wharf — but resident there ; but there was one 
of more public notoriety, of an entirely different character, 
adding to the respectability of this nook. 

Pebecca Jones was an acceptable preacher of the Society 
of Friends, highly esteemed for her consistency of charac- 
ter and spiritual dealings in their meetings, and there and 
then, some sixty years ago, was a profitable example to that 
circle. She died in 1817, in the seventy-eighth year of. 
her age. 

Posanna Donnel too, a good, old Poman Catholic, kept her 
faith there, and behaved accordingly; and her daughter, 



110 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

Mary Donnel, lier worthy successor in faith and practice, 
contributed their mite to the favor of good things to come. 

Antipodes as they were in profession, they were one in 
pursuit, and qualified the atmosphere (that else might have 
edged the source of respiration,) with the smoother zephyrs of 
" love to thy neighbor." 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. Ill 



CHAPTEE XIX. 

Front street — East side — Race to Arch — Christian's Biscuit Bakery — John 
KefFer — Pattison Hartshorne — Agent of the Bavarian Republic — Simon 
Protaasco — Richard Folwell — Jacob Martin — Nathaniel Bayne — William 
Bowen — Isaac Wainwright — Melchoir Wisinger — His Wife — Peter Delamar 
— Joseph Brittin — John Scurlog. 

A BISCUIT BAKERY has been a fixture on tliis line from time 
immemorial : for already in 1791, No. 127. near the corner, 
was a popular resort for biscuits, large or small, wholesale 
and perhaps retail. 

Frederick Christian was an early proprietor, of 1791, here ; 
was succeeded by his son Peter — afterward Alderman Chris- 
tian — and now and for some years past is far-famed as 
Watson's more extensive biscuit bakery. 

John Keffer, however, was well-known as a thrifty, in- 
dustrious, and attentive shoemaker at No. 123, in 1793. In 
those days little boys wore what were familiarly known as 
" Kaks,"* a rather fanciful fit to our tiny feet, and Mr. Keffer 
made them. 

A little below this a blank wall protected the culinary 
department, and very small yard in front of it, of No. 119, a 

*" Kaks" were shoes for small boys, embellished with a yellow streak 
called "rand," inserted between the sole and the seam of the upper. Which, 
proud as we were to get them on, were even more so in due time to get them 
off, being beneath notice whilst in " Kaks." 



112 PHILADELPHIA AND HEE MERCHANTS. 

venerable pile of earlier date, wide front, spacious and re- 
spectable. 

It was tlie habitation of Pattison Hartsliorne, of the firm of 
Hartshorn e, Large & Co., dry goods merchants, 1793. 

Again, a little below, two other very imposing three-story 
mansions claimed respect. Of these, No. 107 was the resi- 
dence of J. H. C. Heineken, agent of the Bavarian Eepublic, 
1807 ; the other, Ko. 105, was in the occupancy of Simon 
Probasco, a Notary Public, a terror to the unnjindful of bank 
hours and their three o'clock requirements : for doubtless, 
" protests" were sealed at, and delivered from No. 105 North 
Front street. 

A flight of steps here to Water street intercepts the course, 
and a wall on their south side, protective of a chasm behind 
it, leads to the printing-office of the famous Eichard Folwell. 

Dickey Folwell — for such was his cognomen — was the racy 
editor of the " Spirit of the Press," a small, but characteristic 
sheet, redolent of wit, humor and sarcasm, and unsparing of 
its subjects. 

Dickey was an indomitable wit, and whether " four fingers 
and a thumb" knocked him down for it, or the hilarity of his 
gaysome chums lit up his convivialities, it was the same to 
him. Wit or sarcasm, or revenge in that form, was in him, 
and must and did come out. 

He was full of talent, but it got into a wrong channel. 
Moreover, Temperance societies were in futuro^ and Dickey 
was innocent of their meaning. His editorial issues, therefore, 
were subjects of unchastened wit and often very unrefined 
report; and woe to the wight that even showed slight upon 
Dickey Folwell. 

His paper was the nucleus of all its like in after time. He 
was small of stature, indifferent to apparel, wore spectacles, 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 113 

often minus one glass, and by no means chaste in his witti- 
cisms. 

Passing a boarding-house, and the shoemaker shop of 
Eichard Miles of No. 72, we come to a nest of frames of two 
stories, inhabited and appropriated as follows : 

The first was occupied by Jacob Martin as residence and 
chair manufactory. Mr. Martin was a tall man, of medium 
locomotion — the reverse of his son Abraham Martin, the 
active and efficient ofi&cer of the Sunday School Union, who 
must have inherited his energies from his mother, which, with 
the steadiness of his father, with uncompromising principles 
of his own, makes him what he certainly is, a valuable 
member of the community. 

Nathaniel Bayne was next neighbor here, a dapper little 
man, active, industrious and speedy. He was a turner, and 
turned out tops of all sorts and sizes for the amusement of 
boys in top season. He and his wife were a happy pair in 
form and social feature; they had no children; were good 
neighbors, and enjoyed the respect of all about them. 

Mr. Bayne died on the 20th of April, 1847, in his eighty- 
fifth year ; but Mrs. Bayne is yet living, and now an inmate 
of the " "Widow's Asylum" of Eighteenth and Cherry street. 

William Bowen was another specimen of the olden time, 
next below. A steady handicraftsman, and well skilled in 
the art of chair-making. These three last all date from 
before 1791, as fixtures there. 

Isaac Wainwright bounds these frames by a very respecta- 
ble three-story brick ; it was of modern appearance and 
character in 1800, and from the steps down the best and 
handsomest house. Mr. Wainwright was a respectable mem- 
ber of the Society of Friends ; a good citizen and estimable 
neighbor. 



11-1 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

A blue two-storied frame here varied the scene, and our old 
friend and neighbor, Melchoir Wisinger, helped the variety 
by the general flow of his wit, humor and friendly familiarity 
with young folks. 

He was a wire-worker by trade, vented his genius in the 
back room of his lower story, and exhibited its fruits in bird- 
cages, sieves, etc., at the front window and door, where a 
review shows up the old gentleman in his porch, resting and 
supporting one of his legs — unbent and unbending from a 
white- swelling in his youth — fondling and joking with the 
youth of the neighborhood as they came within his call. 

His dame — second wife — erewhile the " Widow Sykes," is 
entitled to a tribute. She was handmaid to industry and 
frugality, and economized even day-dawn to lengthen time. 
She and Peter Hahn's boy were competitors for the first ray, 
of whom it was quaintly said that they both staid up all night 
for the prize in the morning. 

This old lady died April 26th, 1851, in her ninetieth year. 

She had had her day of fascination, and admiration followed 
her to the porch of her second matrimonial embark, for a 
jilted " Coelebs" often sat himself in an opposite porch, solilo- 
quizing his mishap, and denouncing her liege lord as an im- 
perfect concern. 

This is a sample of the olden time. Human nature echoes 

Peter Delamar was a nautical instrument-maker next below, 
in the house afterward the residence of Singleton, the son-in- 
law of Mrs. Holland, of Front near Market, of whom more 
anon. 

Beer-houses were less obnoxious than under our present 
code of refinement. A pint of beer was an allowable beverage, 
and a room for its enjoyment was undisputed authoritj^ for its 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 115 

legality. A good Presbyterian could and did vend and 
measure the juice of malt, with its hop tonic, sans reproche, 
without fear of censure from Session or Presbytery. 

Joseph Brittin was the exemplary maitre d'hote here, highly 
esteemed, well-mannered, and a proper disciplinarian of his 
domestic circle ; neither broils nor enemies grew upon his 
soil, nor aught of evil to disparage his claims to good citizen- 
ship. 

Odds and ends in society have been and ever will be. 

The corner was without notoriety, except that it was a 
boarding-house, kept by Mrs. Phoebe Wady ; but there was 
spice of a peculiar nature in it. 

John Scurlog was a bachelor, and a Eoman Catholic de- 
cidedly opposed to Protestantism in any form. He was wont 
to amuse, and perhaps vent himself from his door-step on 
Sundays, and soliloquize ridicule upon church-goers thus : — 

"Look at that auld divil! She's going to meetin', and 
the divil a word will she hear or say." Again, " There 
goes another. He's going to church to say ' we've done those 
things that we oughtn't to have done,' and as soon as he gets 
out, he'll do it over again;" and thus he would conclude — 
"One divil jumps out of another." He was, however, an 
innocent odd one. 



116 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 



CHAPTEE XX. 

Front street, West side — Race to Arch — Charles Cavender — Dr. Albert! — 
Abraham Kintzing — Henry Pratt's dwelling — Thomas Pratt — Matthew Pratt 
— Henry Drinker — Archibald Gardner — Richard Wall — Christian Huhn — 
Ephraim Haines — Henry Slesman — John Skyren — Sharon Carter — Joe Banjo 
— John Webb— "Old Katy" — Dankel — Seveke — Gilbert Gaw — Larer — Car- 
penter's Trenton Stage Office — John Inskeep — Alexander James Dallas — 
Samuel W. Fisher — Nathan Field — Benjamin Olden — My own Homestead — 
Incidents of the Times. 

The southwest corner of Eace and Front streets was occu- 
pied in 1802, by- Charles Cavender, as his grocery store and 
residence, who was at the same time a local preacher of the 
Methodist church. 

Dr. George F. Alberti was resident next below, at No. 116, 
in 1805. 

This house was an ancient structure of brick, three stories 
in height, but about sixteen feet in front; elevation to the 
first floor, some five or sis steps. 

In the front room — a very small one — he had his epitome 
of an apothecary shop, where he compounded his curatives 
preparatory to his professional visits, always carrying his 
medical intentions in the side pocket of his coat. 

The Doctor was a dapper little gentleman, of independent 
but very thoughtful carriage, fraught with wit, humor, and 
Esculapean wisdom, tossing his queue in keeping with the up 
and down of his heart. He was a man of kindly tempera- 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 117 

ment and great suavity of manner ; but an expletive would 
sometimes muddle the stream of his amiability, and dash the 
modesty of an erring patient. 

His usual mode of addressing his female patients was, 
"Honey," "My dear," in soft, musical tones. 

On a visit to a lady, his softest and most sympathetic in- 
quiry was, " Well, my dear, how are you this morning?" 

" Why, Doctor, I'm not very well — not as well as yester- 
day." 

''The silent Doctor shook his head," and his queue instanter 
popped up from the collar of his coat as he dropped his chin 
upon his breast. 

" Ahem !" said he. " Why, honey, what's the matter ? I 
left you comfortable yesterday. Where, my dear, is your 
pain ?" 

(This was not an amorous expression of aftection, for his 
patient was his senior.) 

" Oh ! my Doctor," she replied, " in the pit of my stomach!" 
Again the queue wagged the motion of his thoughts. 

" Sorry to hear it, my dear," said he, sympathetically ; 
"pray what have you been eating?" 

" Why nothing. Doctor, but a few new potatoes^ Down 
went the queue as up went the head. 

"New potatoes!" exclaimed he. "New potatoes! The 
devil you have. Why, what the devil did you do that for, 
madam ?" 

"Why, Doctor! " 

"Why, the devil," said he, "no wonder at your pain in the 
pit of the stomach ! New potatoes," murmured he' — " the 
devil;" but the antidote was in his side pocket, and a nau- 
seous dose was the penalty. 

The Doctor thought well of his companionship with Dr. 



118 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

PlijsiC; as student, and had claims to his skill as M.D. in after 
life. 

He was a fond patron of matrimony, having himself 
pledged his troth some two or three times at the altar of 
Hymen. 

He passed time's ordeal until the 22d of June, 1837, en- 
rolled him in the catalogue of the past, and gathered him to 
his fathers, in the seventy-second year of his age. 

In 1795, Abraham Kintzing occupied No. 114, next below 
Dr. Alberti's. 

This gentleman was of the firm of Pratt & Kintzing ; in 
appearance very respectable, dignified, and gentlemanly ; in 
reputation, a merchant of the first order ; in character, shrewd, 
and attentive; and untiring in the pursuits of his firm, of 
which he had the credit of being the merchant. 

He was of medium stature, and steady, thoughtful move- 
ment. 

In 1796, Henry Pratt bought the mansion of Isaac Whar- 
ton, the father of the late Thomas I. Wharton, Esq., remod- 
eled, modernized, and freshened it to distinction above its 
neighbors, so that No. 112 knew not its former state. Here 
Mr. Pratt took up his abode, from his former residence in 
Water street.* 

It was a rather depressed three-story brick, but about forty 

*. 
feet in front, with broad and high marble steps to its entrance, 

which was in the centre, having parlors, with two full-sized 

windows each, on either side of the hall or entry. 

* Immediatelj' after Mr. H. Pratt's removal from Water street, Peter Care, 
an eminent miller and flour merchant, took possession of the homestead, and 
pursued his dealings in flour at that point. 

Mr. Care was the last father-in-law of Mr. Pratt, as allied to Miss Susan 
Care, she being his third wife. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 119 

It stood some ten or twelve feet back from tlie line, wliicli 
gave it lawn and railing, beautifying as protecting the 
domain within; in addition to this, a carriage-way on the 
south side, helped the guarantee of its character and title to 
respect. 

Henry Pratt was a son of Matthew Pratt, an eminent 
limner of 1758, connected in history with our late Dr. Philip 
Syng Physic, whose grandfather, Philip Syng, Sr., being a 
a;oldsmith, tutored the father of our Matthew Pratt, in that 
art. 

The works of Matthew Pratt are still extant in the Pratt 
family, and have borne the test of contrast and criticism with 
the most eminent artists ; for a more extensive account, see 
Dunlap's history of the " Rise and Progress of the Arts and 
Design in the United States," vol. 1, p. 98. 

Thomas Pratt was also a scion of the above stem, and had 
his day at ISTo. 52 South Wharves, as a respectable shipping 
merchant, in 1805. 

Henry Pratt died on the 6th of February, 1837, in his 
seventy-seventh year, leaving his brother, Thomas Pratt, the 
survivor of the parentage. 

He is yet, though eighty-six years of age, in the full enjoy- 
ment of life ; and being of sound mind, memory and under- 
standing, is a very intelligent and comj)anionable old gentle- 
man. 

In this immediate neighborhood, and between 112 and the 
corner, there was a wine-bottling cellar, kept by a long, tall, 
gaunt Frenchman, whose daily companion seemed to be a 
tutored cat, tamed, domesticated, and familiarized ; and so far 
the boon companion of her master, that she might be seen 
frequently at his side, or near him, taking cellar-doors, steps 
and the wall, for her instinctive protection from dogs. 



120 PHILADELPHIA AND HEE MERCHANTS. 

No. 110 was a large three-story brick mansion of full forty 
feet in front, door in the centre, parlors each side of the hall, 
elevation considerable, surmounted by a high flight of gray- 
stone steps, wide and easy. 

This was the residence of Henry Drinker, a valuable mem- 
ber of the Society of Friends, a kind-hearted, benevolent 
gentleman — sans boots, spurs or lapels — a " friend in need," 
as I am happy in the opportunity to show. 

An ancient friend of mine had sold one property to buy 
another ; but his purchaser, jealous of the transaction, with- 
held the consideration in order to supplant him in the opera- 
tion. Nonplussed by the suspension, he went to a lawyer who 
had professed friendship and proffered services in any future 
emergency, to whom he essayed to state his case ; but, this 
limb of the law, forgetting his friendly invitation, paced his 
office floor to and fro, whistling the appeal into vacuum; 
finally, however, he stopped short and said, "Jacob, don't 
thee know, no 2'>ciy, no 'pater nosier V 

In this dilemma — for he was poor, and had no pay for this 
"pater noster" — he went to his friendly neighbor, about a 
square off, and stated his difficulty and danger of losing his 
bargain. 

Mr. Drinker heard his complaint, and impromptu thus re- 
sponded : 

" Jacob, go at once and procure writings to confirm thy 
purchase, and I'll lend thee the money, (£100,) till thee gets 
thine." And this he did without fee, reward or security, 
1793. 

Such was Henry Drinker, of 110 North Front street; and 
as far as I have known the Drinker family since, they did not 
fall far from that tree, for they were a goodly folk. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEKCHANTS. 121 

Drinker's alley takes this family name, for it runs on tlie 
south side of these premises through to Second street. 

The southwest corner of this alley was occupied, in 1795, as 
a tallow-chandlery, by Archibald Gardner, but subsequently 
by Eichard Wall, 1807, and many years after as a Windsor 
chair manufactory. 

Already in 1796, there was a very venerable pair at No. 
104 

Christian Hahn was a prominent manufacturer of chocolate 
and mustard. His manufactory was on the rear of his lot, 
and the chocolate-nuts ground, melted, mixed and moulded 
there. 

The grinding was done by horse-power. I have often seen 
the poor beast tread the circle round and round again, with- 
out coming to any point, until 11 o'clock A. M. gave respite 
to him and his masters. 

The welcome " punch-bowl" in turn awaited release of its 
burthen — for a refreshment of some kind was customary at 
about 11 o'clock, in that day — our workmen therefore 
hastened to the agreeable emolient to their dusted throats, 
where, under good cheer, they quaffed their portion, and 
crushed their bread and cheese. 

This respectable couple were original members — from the 
German Lutheran — of Dr. Mayer's English Lutheran church, 
and it fell to ray lot to escort the old lady to the old Academy 
in Fourth street, to hear his first sermon. 

Mrs. Hahn was a small body, whilst Dr. Mayer was of full 
stature ; but, returning from the service, the old lady said, 
that he v/as a "fine Ultle many 

I am happy to salt her memory, as a very fine, good, little 
woman ; and her husband, as a good, peace-loving citizen. 

Ephraim Haines was a merchant of another sort ; but his 



122 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

extensive dealings in maliogany, made him widely known, 
and at home at No. 100. 

He afterward purchased the lot and frame of the eminent 
carver, Eush, No. 172, and built himself a residence on that 
artistic spot — a spot sacred to the memory of art and science 
in the United States. 

At No. 98, a bag punctured with feathers showed forth the 
calling of Henry Slesman, as a dealer in that article. 

Mr. Slesman was a quiet neighbor in practice as well as by 
nature, for from some remote cause he had lost the edge of 
his voice and he spoke softly. 

He lived here for many years after 1795. 

John Skyren — noted in the diagram — was resident at the 
upper corner of Elfrith's alley. No. 96 in 1805. 

Sharon Carter, noted page 30, was resident at the south 
corner of Elfrith's alley, No. 94 in 1802. 

In this compass, a little below the above corner, an old 
tenement with almost erect cellar-door, exhibiting at its open- 
ing onions, sausages, potatoes, fish, and a variety of edibles 
with their various odors, was the general whereabouts of a 
certain darkey, called " Joe," a one-string musician or banjo- 
ist, which with his thumb, the only facility of his right hand, 
he tickled day in and day out, to the amusement of the boys 
and the arrest of a penny from more mature admirers. Joe 
Avas an original on the banjo, and gave tone to his immediate 
atmosphere, unobstructed in vibration on my ear even to the 
present time. 

John Webb, a very excellent member of the Society of 
Friends, occupied No. 88. He was a cabinet-maker by trade, 
and had his shop in the rear. 

The grading of the street here left the original ground- floor 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 123 

or parlor one story above its earlier location, and made the 
late cellar a tenantable basement. 

Mr. "Webb was a practically pious man, keeping bis end in 
view by the memento mori of his own measured coffin under 
his bed. He was a preacher of the Society of Friends. 

The basement above alluded to was tenanted by a certain 
Catharine Hanaingrout, commonly known as "Old Katy," 
who sold apples, cakes, candies, and small beer in the front 
part, and had her boudoir in a floorless department in the rear. 
''Katy" had been evidently a fine-looking woman in her 
younger day ; but alas ! for the ruthless ravages of time, she 
was even bowing to its mandate already in my earliest day : 
for eighty years were even then her portion. 

Length of days and decency of apparel ascribed wealth to 
her reputation, which a youth of twenty-four eyeing with 
eager covetousne'ss, crawled to her blind side, captured her, 
and decoyed her to a matrimonial alliance. 

Poor " Old Katy !" the penalty of her folly was the annihi- 
lation of her domestic comforts. 

In 1802 a burly baker, Henry Dankel, with more than the 
ordinary allotment of flesh and blood, was master of a bakery 
in the old two-story brick house next below; who was suc- 
ceeded by Godfrey Seveke in 1807, and who, like his prede- 
cessor, throve and grew fat by the daily issues of twist and 
hot rolls in the morning, and the savory roasts at noon. This 
was a sustentation fund of the neighborhood. 

The row here was broken by an inlet for egress from, and 
ingress to stables and other conveniences in the rear. 

The south side of this alley was bounded by the chair- 
manufactory of Gilbert Gaw, there already in 1795, and long 
after, indeed until death itself smothered his existence in the 
conflagration of his premises. 



124 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

Mr. Gaw was a good citizen tliongh a severe disciplinarian ; 
but his efforts for obedience were as striking out, as in-doors, 
seeing that a street-brawl would bring him with almost con- 
stabulary authority to the rescue of peace and good order. 

Melchoir Larer took state next below, as brewer and bottler 
of malt liquor — VASTLY DIFFERENT FROM ITS ABOMINABLE 
APOLOGY UNDER THE NAME OF LAGER-BEER, A PERNICIOUS 
AND DECEITFUL DECOY TO THE BAR AND THE BOTTLE, A 
SWILL, MORE TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE BODY AND SOUL 
OF MAN THAN RUM OR ANY OF ITS AFFINITIES IN GROG SHOP, 
TAVERN, OR HOTEL. 

The Trenton stage-office swung its sign over the pavement 
of No. 82, where the crack of the whip of the waiting driver 
often enlivened the early morn as a call to those within and a 
show to those without. 

The house was old and rusty (brick), had very high steps 
to the bar-room, and was kept by John Carpenter (1802), a 
man of extra size, contrasting extensively with his minimum 
better-half — literally half — for she could easily pass under his 
outstretched arm. 

John Inskeep, from the same occupation at No. 46 Arch 
street, under the sign of the "Jolly Bacchus" in 1793, was 
Alderman Inskeep at No. 80 North Front street, next below 
the stage-office, 1802. 

Here an arched alley broke the line; this alley was the 
entrance to the stables of James C. Fisher, who occupied the 
mansion in front on Arch street, and the stores of Samuel 
Allen, whose countiag-house and dwelling was a few doors 
above Mr, Fisher. 

The south corner of the alley was the residence of Alex- 
ander James Dallas, the father of our cotemporary George 
M. Dallas, Minister- Plenipotentiary, etc., etc. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 125 

Mr. Dallas was then, 1795, Secretary of tlie Commonwealth 
of Pennsylvania. 

He was a remarkable fine-looking man, full size, well built, 
and well-dressed ; a very prominent part of his apparel was 
a brown coat, and his finish a well-powdered head, with 
clubbed hair rolling a circle of powder on and below the 
collar of his coat. 

Mr. Dallas was an eminent jurist and constituted no small 
part of the dignity of our upper Courts, where I have often 
seen him, when at leisure, sitting with his right hand resting 
in the bosom of his half-buttoned coat, to the admiration of 
more than your author. 

We are here on the ground of the old Quaker Bank Meet- 
ing House, which was considerably elevated, and whither 
Friends congregated for worship from time to time, according 
to the order of the Society, until taken down in 1789 ; and 
here, too, some of the descendants of that fraternity domi- 
ciliated after the removal of the meeting-house, seeing that 
Samuel W. Fisher, a very respectable member of the Society 
of Friends, probably built and was located at No. 76, in a 
first-class three-story brick mansion of about forty feet front, 
with extensive yard and garden ; a highly respected citizen 
and neighbor; bland, unassuming and plain, but of gentle- 
manly deportment. 

This Mr. Fisher built the house in Arch street above 
Seventh in 1796, now the western part of the ''Ashland 
House," which he, however, never occupied, but became the 
residence of Thomas W. McEwen, of the firm of McEwen, 
Hale & Davidson, and afterward of Bartholomew Wistar. 
The lot was seventy -four feet in Arch street, which gave to 
the house a side yard of about fifty feet. Its identity is 
incorporated in the " Ashland House," and the vacant ground 



126 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

on the west by two other large three-story bricks, iu one of 
which, next above the hotel, we have our old meixhant, John 
Farnum, and the other is now more varied in tenants as a 
boarding-house. 

Leaving this digression and returning to my connection, I 
note another three-story brick on the Bank Meeting lot, next 
below Samuel W. Fisher, in the occupancy of Nathan Field, 
a bill-broker. 

Mr. Field was a heavy man, of friendly mien, an adherent 
of the Society of Friends, and respectable in his calling. 

The large house. No. 76, was built by James C. Fisher, the 
brother and partner of Samuel W. Fisher. 

Here we have a companion of the old Quaker Meeting 
House, a relic of the olden antecedent of 1791, a two-story 
frame with porch and pent-house, the domicil and workshop 
of Benjaman Olden, boot and shoemaker. 

My neighbor Olden was also of corporeal dimensions — 
not over-grown, but full* grown ; a steady, quiet, well-dis- 
posed neighbor. But "Dick," his apprentice, often pro- 
claimed a contrary opinion. "Dick" did not believe in early 
rising as a medium to health, wealth and wisdom, and there- 
fore had to take the strap for his neglect of the lap-stone. 

There was no six to six in those days, but daylight to dark 
was the law ; and the " baas" required and demanded all the 
rights and privileges of the custom : sunrise was therefore a 
sad omen for " Dick" in bed, and his protest against the in- 
trusion was apt to be loud and long. 

But to the spot of my own beginning ! An old time three- 
story brick intercepted the corner, and seemed to be squeezed 
in between that and the frame. 

It was about sixteen feet front by fifty feet deep, with a 
nook of a shop in front, a small parlor annexed, and a strip 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 127 

of convenience for evening retirement in the rear, to wliicli 
a corresponding strip of a yard outside gave the privilege 
of light and air, but the whole was hemmed in, surrounded, 
and out-topped by the wall of the corner and the Arch-street 
house, all which stretched along the side and rear of the lot. 

1'his, though not my birth-spot, was the homestead of the. 
first years of my existence, the humble domicil of my parents. 

It was purchased of Lynch, in 1793, for £900 

($2400), where my father lived fifty-one years, until his 
demise on the 3d of JSTovember, 1834, 

A familiar feature of the time was the frequent visits 
of Indians, some ring-nosed, feathered and painted, others 
in plain blanket, leggins and moccasins; a squaw or more 
in the rear as they marched listlessly on, with a papoose in a 
blanket secured to their back. 

Most of the men had their bow and arrows, and proudly 
tested their skill upon " fip-penny-bits" stuck on edge on a 
chosen post — of which many ranged along the curb; their 
aim was but the precursor to the game, for they invariably 
hit the mark and took the prize, and that with the coldest 
indifference under a mere muscular monosyllabic utterance. 

There is no more of this either; the posts are gone and 
the Indians approach us no longer in that familiar way. 

Another peculiar featui-e of this early time offers itself to notice ; as matter 
of by-gone curiosity, I perpetuate the fact : most of our streets were alive 
with swallows, which nestled under the eaves of the houses and came down 
morning and evening in I'apid flight, up and down the street, skimming the 
ground in search of food, watched by the boys and but too often fell victims 
of their unerring clubs. 

The march of improvement seems to have wiped that familiarity of the 
feathered tribe entirely out of the world's variety. 



128 PHILADELPHIA- AKD HER MERCHANTS. 



CHAPTEE XXL 

A STRAY CHAPTER. 

The Corner of Front and Arch streets— Hahn & Spohn — Peter Ilahn — Destruc 
tion of the Premises— Mary Sowerby — Savage Stillwell— Thomas Cumpson 
— John Claxton — James C. Fisher — Dr. Cathrall — Ambrose "Vasse — Samuel 
Allen— William Gibbs— Dickey Folwell — Benjamin Thaw — Hannah January 
— Benjamin R. Morgan — Dr. Physic — John Biddle — Louis GiUiams— Frede- 
rick Hailer — John Coburn — Gustavus Risberg— Samuel Wetherill, Jr. — 
Brumige — Humbert Droz. 

I MUST premise this chapter, bj reference to, and correction 
of, an error in my " History of the Moravian Church in Phil- 
adelphia," where, from an oversight of the proof-reader, I am 
made to describe the southeast corner of Second and Race as 
under demolition, instead of the northwest corner of 
Front and Arch, which was then — April, 1857 — being 
destroyed to its foundation. 

This northwest corner of Front and Arch streets, was an 
old-time affair, even in th'e year 1800. It was of brick, three 
stories on Front street, and three and a half on Arch street ; 
the second story on Front street was squared by a pent-house 
and eaves, whilst on Arch street the third story showed up a 
pediment from the eaves over the third story, which pediment 
crowned the garret. 

Its ground-plot was about twenty feet on Front street, by 
some sixty or seventy on Arch street. The main building 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 129 

was about twenty by thirty, or at most forty feet deep ; the 
rear portion on Arcb street was two stories high, the second 
story of which, in 1804, was the culinary appendage to the 
upper part of the corner or main building. 

This belonged to the Fisher family; and in 1791, and prob- 
ably even beyond 1783, it was the store and counting-house 
of James 0. & Samuel W. Fisher, who were shipping mer- 
chants of considerable note. 

In 1802, it was in the occupancy of Hahn & Spohn, gro- 
cers, who begun business life here. The partnership was not 
of long duration. Mr. Spohn retired from the firm, and Mr. 
Hahn continued in very successful operation in the premises, 
having his residence up stairs for a season ; the inconvenience 
of the confines, however, impelled a move to more convenient 
quarters ; and he took them in Eace, midway between Front 
and Second, south side. 

It is but due to the memory of Mr. Hahn to say, that he 
was one of the most prominent and popular grocers of his 
day ; unsurpassed in industry, and second to none in perse- 
verance and attention to his business, in which he was aufait 
at all points. He took the tide of the times at its ebb, and 
rode its stream to its flood, where he made fast with the haw- 
ser of the wit and wisdom that bound him to the retreat. 

Mr. Hahn was naturally a tall man, but a stoop or curve 
of his shoulders, from physical devotion to his business, re- 
duced his erect measure. 

The steadiness of his walk was the insignia of his purpose ; 
it was straightforward, and thoughtful. 

His countenance was intelligent, features sharp, nose aqui- 
line and very prominent, lips thin and compressed, strong 
evidence of ability and determination to keep his own coun- 
sel ; dark and rather listless eye, but marked and set in saga- 
9 



130 PHILADELPHIA AND HEK MEECHANTS. 

city ; and but for the pits of small-pox, he was rather hand- 
some than otherwise. 

He left a large estate, and but one heir, a daughter, for its 
benefits, who entered the matrimonial list with Dr. George B. 
Wood, whose reputation for a liberal and proper disposition 
of his monetary advantage, without ostentation, needs no illu- 
mination whatever. 

The money is in good hands. 

My apprenticeship with Mr. Hahn, in 1804, gave me a full 
scope for information of matters and things, for some distance 
around my centre. 

The whole of this, and the adjacent tenements north and 
west, have been sunk in nonentity, and their identity worn off, 
but for the privilege and the penchant of an antiquarian to re- 
view, resuscitate, and in memory perpetuate. 

The march of improvement does not spare any thing : it 
wipes up even the fastnesses of affection, and supplants the 
fondnesses of antiquity ; but it must and it will progress, 
and it is for me only to show its ravages. Old times, to 
" Young America," are of no account whatever ; but, by-and- 
by, " Young America," if it ever comes to maturity^ will 
covet a modicum of old time stability. 

The march of improvement (in this case,) in its sway, has 
obliterated the identity of the following constituents of this 
corner and its neighbors. 

First. On Front street, my own early homestead, No. 70. 

Second. A well-built, modern three-story brick house, the 
residence and dentistry of the late Eobert Burkhard, who 
built on Olden's lot. No. 72. 

Third. Another good three-story brick, the former domicil 
of Nathan Field, No. 74 ; thus clearing about eighty feet on 
Front street. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HEE MEUCHANTS. 131 

Fourtli. No. 13, on Arch street, adjoining the west end of 
the corner lot. 

This was the happy home of Mrs. "Widow Mary Sowerby, 
from whose hearth a bountiful supply of buckwheat cakes 
was served to the neighbors, every morning in winter, at six 
for sixpence ; and her little shop in front was equally tooth- 
some to young folks with burning pennies — apples, ginger- 
bread, and candies being irresistible temptations to a flighty 
penny, 

Mrs, Sowerby lived in this house for many years, from and 
after 1802, 

Fifth. Savage Stillwell, merchant, in his day, 1805, en- 
joyed the retreat of No, 15, This was the grandsire of our 
present townsman. Mason Hutchins. 

Sixth. Thomas Crumpston, merchant, and one of the War- 
dens of Christ Church, a rather austere old gentleman, was a 
member of the early community, at No. 17. 

Seventh. John Claxton, ship-chandler, No, 19. 

Eighth, The dignified and extensive domain of James C. 
Fisher — and, for many years after his removal, of his sisters 
Tabitha and Martha. No. 21 — the numbers were very irregu- 
lar — fell a " prey to the times." 

This house covered some forty feet on Arch street, had a 
fine yard and garden, and stables in the rear, with ingress 
and egress through the arched alley in Front street, between 
Nos. 80 and 82, and known as Fisher's alley. 

Ninth. Dr. Isaac Cathrall, a man of wit and pleasantry, 
eminent in his profession, a gentleman with protective force 
of sarcasm, if needed, was popularly known at No, 23 ; and 
here permit me to interpolate, that his wife, by maiden name, 
Kay, was perhaps the handsomest and finest-looking woman 
in the city at that time, 1805, and for many years after — aye, 



132 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 

even to her death ; who, after her second union with Joseph 
Worrel, and her third with David Jones, departed this life on 
the 15th of June, 1858, in the seventy-eighth year of her age ; 
still stately and tasty in apparel, bearing all the delineations 
of youthful beauty and continuous dignity of carriage. 

To this point every vestige of old times has disappeared — 
gone ! forever gone ! — ground to powder and mixed up with 
the dust, and amalgamated in the pile that makes the levia- 
than of the less ambitious owners of 1800. 

I cannot refrain from a further digression at this point, 
there being items of history in immediate connection with 
this vicinity ; nothing startling, but ties of the time — good 
men of good manners, and active tributaries to the life of the 
last, and beginning of the present century. 

Amongst these, our respects are due to the memory of 
Ambrose Yasse,* a prominent merchant, whose dwelling and 
comptoir was the dignified mansion of No. 29, from 1794 to 
1802 ; afterward, 1805, in the occupancy of Samuel Allen, 
also a merchant ; having stables and stores on the rear, acces- 
sible by Fisher's alley from Front street. 

* Mr. Vasse was a Frenchman, and a respectable member of the Society of 
Fi'iends, and attended the Bank Meeting on the west side of Front street above 
Arch. 

He was a shipping merchant in good standing, but the French Revolution 
crippled his finances, but not his respectability. 

His title to the property above, came first by a bill of attainder to George 
Haynes, March, 1778; afterward, Jared IngersoU to Ambrose Vasse, 1794. 

Tradition says, that this domain was the quarter of General Arnold, after 
the battle of Saratoga; and that here his extravagance and indulgence over 
his wound at Saratoga, brought him heavily in debt, and being refused by 
Congress to make up his deficiencies, he hatched his scheme of treachery to 
surrender West Point. 

Mr. Vasse destroyed the old and perhaps original building, and erected the 
mansion elsewhere noted in this volume. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 133 

William Gibbs, too, a retired merchant — blind for manj 
years — was not without respectful notice at No. 31 ; whilst 
the famous Dickey Folwell pressed his wit, and sometimes 
his ribaldry, at No. 33, before he was located in Front street, 
as heretofore described. 

Politics did not disrupt a man's household, nor command 
the business time of a partisan ; for although our neighbor 
Benjamin Thaw gave active vent to his political opinions, 
he was none the less a very respectable tailor, at No. 37, 
mindful of his proper vocation, and successful in its pur- 
suit. 

Mr. Thaw was a gentlemanly and highly esteemed neigh- 
bor ; his shop, or more technically, his shop-board, was in a 
one-story building next above his dwelling. 

A passage of six or eight feet separated Mr. Thaw's shop 
from his dwelling, which was an avenue to one or two tene- 
ments on the rear, in one of which dwelt the well known 
Hannah January, a layer-out of the dead ; she was the most 
popular ofl&cial of that severe calling of that day. 

Benjamin E. Morgan, attoruey-at-law, was a prominent 
man at No, 41, in 1802, and sufficiently popular to be offered, 
by his political friends, after that time, as a proper incumbent 
of the gubernatorial chair of this State. In 1823, he was 
Judge of our District Court. 

Mr. Morgan was a fine-looking man, tall, well-built, and 
wore his hair clubbed and powdered. 

Our eminent Dr. Philip Syng Physic also contributed to 
the tone of wisdom, if not of wealth, at that time, 1795, of 
this neighborhood, No. 45. 

This was in his celibacy. He afterward married a daugh- 
ter of Samuel Emlen, an eminent member and minister of the 
Society of Friends. 



134 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

Mr. Bmlen died in 1799, in Arch below Sixth, on the pre- 
mises — the minor part of which is the present office of your 
author, which of&ce was also once that of Dr. Physic. 

Dr. Physic died on the 15th of December, 1837, at -the 
northeast corner of Union and Fourth streets, in the seven- 
tieth year of his age,* 

Communities are necessarily made up of variety, and an 
incongruous mixture must, more or less, follow in the cata- 
logue of subjects ; and as recollections, particularly of a fami- 
liar spot, are difficult of control, the platform will show up 
any thing but kindred spirits — no disrespect to the contrast — 
but a mere representation of things as they were. Hence 
then let me pass to the other side of Arch street, and review 
and revive the life of that region down to the corner. 

In this, I cannot pass the odds of society with the cold 
shoulder, nor link the time without a warm one to its more 
popular ends. 

John Eiddle, a tailor, of No. 34, on the south side, was a 
moving spirit of the time, a notorious draftsman on snuff", 
repudiating the box for the more spacious receptacle of his 
waistcoat pocket ; and for his fancy obtained the title of 
" Snuffy Eiddle." 

Louis Gilliams, of No. 26, was perhaps the earliest dentist 
in Philadelphia ; and was popular, for after 1795, he built a 
handsome three-story brick house on the opposite side, and 
was there eminent in his practice. 

He was a full-sized man, of small voice, and of very pleasant 

* The Doctor's residence, No. 45 Arch street, seems to have been not only 
a source of curative, but a cui'rent of the healing art, an apothecary shop 
having been there for many years; and even now is a mart for the benefit of 
the sick, under the proprietorship of Edward Gaillard, Jr., as No. 137, the 
successor of Thomas Dugdal, who was there from 1829. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 135 

and winning manners ; pulled hard at a tooth; but beguiled 
the agony of his patient in the jocosity of his condolence. 
The old gentleman having served his day and generation, left 
his substance to his children, and his subjects to his son 
Jacob, who, after a time, moved to the' more fashionable and 
more available quarters of Walnut street. 

Another important " tin," showing the fears and terrors of a 
female under venesection, embellished the window-shiitter of 
No. 24, of which Frederick Hailer, a small but venerable 
professor of phlebotomy, was the proprietor. 

The pony of John Coburn awaited his master's will at the 
curb of JSTo. 21, whence to his rigging-loft on the wharf, Mr. 
Coburn was borne daily. 

Mr. Coburn was a snug little man, and his pony was well 
proportioned to his burden ; they looked as if they had 
sought and found proportions. 

Gustavus Eisberg, a retired merchant, and a very clever 
man, was occupant of No. 16. It was a three-story brick, of 
respectable appearance — parlor somewhat elevated — and ac- 
cessible by three or four stone steps running up sideways. 

Mr. Eisberg was resident here as far back as 1791, and 
until the early part of the present century, 1802-4. 

Samuel Wetherill, Jr., occupied this house for several years 
afterward, which is still standing. 

There is also yet standing — No. 12 — a very weather-beaten, 
three-story brick tenement, of at least one hundred years 
durance. 

In 1795 to 1805, Minia Brumige, a colored woman, and 
her aunt, or mother, known as " Old Phoebe," made and sold 
cakes and cranberry tarts at this point. 

Brumige himself rather repudiated temperance pledges, 
which often made " midnight howl" over the controversy be- 



136 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

tween Mrs. Brumige at the chamber-window, and Mr. Brumiga 
at the door below, on the difference of rhenmatiz vs. rum-atiz, 
doubtless to the great and oft-repeated annoyance of their 
neighbor, John Goodwin, of No. 10, next door below. 

In 1795, the popular and wide-known Humbert Droz, 
made, repaired, and sold watches at this corner of Front and 
Arch ; but 1802 knew Joel Gibbs as manufacturer and ven- ' 
dor of hats, beaver, felt, and roram. 

"With a plea for indulgence for this curve in the order of 
my detail, which I trust, however, is not altogether without 
interest, I return to my proper line of march and observa- 
tion. 




<jC. 




^'yiyf^f.e^ /rtf/^^y^^^^ 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 137 



CHAPTER XXII. 

The East Side of Front street — Arch to Market — Samuel Wetherill, the Vener- 
able Sire of the Fourth-rising Generation of that Family — John M. Taylor — 
Nqthnagel & MontmoUen — Saviel — Joshua Lippincott -Samuel York — Girai'd 
— Time of his Death. 

Eeturning from my curve and its short compass, wHcli I 
could not forego from its familiar characteristics and the face 
and features of the neighborhood, now for the most part non- 
existent, but sunk in the vortex of time, my Front-street 
review claims connection to my history, and the southeast 
corner of Front and Arch calls for its link to the Front street 
line. 

Samuel "Wetherill, the great-grandsire of the present gene- 
ration, was the proprietor and owner of this southeast corner 
of Front and Arch, for some sixty or seventy feet southward 
from the corner, on the southern part of which there were, in 
1791, two frames, one of which he owned and apparently 
nestled for future thrift ; the other he bought of the elder 
Jacob Eitter, in 1793, and thus became the proprietor of what 
afterward loomed largely as No. 66 ; previous to this, how- 
ever, he was located at No. 27 North Third street as druggist, 
apothecary and vendor of paints in colors. 

Although a certain John Nicholson, Jr., gunmaker, occu- 
pied the corner in 1795, it is equally true that the Wetherills 
were the dominant parties in interest on that soil long before, 
the sire having planted his standard there over an embryo 



138 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS, 

pursTiit even previous to 1791, whilst Samuel Wetherill & 
SonS) druggists, oil and colormen, announce themselves at 
No. 65 in 1795 ; and Mordecai Wetherill, one of the firm, 
branched off in the same business at the corner, 1802, whilst 
the like calling was found afterward for many years operative 
by John "Wetherill, another son, and Samuel Budd. 

This concern was as of '' acorn" growth — its branches were 
vigorous and its foliage of healthy verdure even in the face 
of time ; and the notoriety of Samuel Wetherill & Son, drug- 
gists, oil and colormen, at No. 65 North Front street, like a 
towering oak gilt by the sunshine of prosperity, stood defiant 
of competition and regardless of the adverse winds of time 
and circumstances ; and as all this sprung from a very small 
beginning, but a germ of intrinsic wealth, it is but a small 
tribute to the memory of the elder Samuel Wetherill to pre- 
sent him as that germ ; and I am happy in my ignorance of 
QMj family pride that will frown or shy at the view of the 
acorn, as it sprouted and spread its branches, growing fruits 
of intrinsic value. 

The ancestry of Samuel Wetherill originated in England, 
and his immediate antecedents came to America and settled 
in Jersey even before the arrival of William Penn. Mr. 
Wetherill was originally a carpenter by trade, and as such 
came to Philadelphia before the Eevolution. 

In process of time he changed his occupation from car- 
penter to that of weaver, and 'tis said, was the first weaver of 
Jeans and Fustians in America, having his dwelling and 
manufactory at No. 9 South alley, now Commerce street. 

Here he made the best of time and circumstances ; and 
being a " Whig," and decidedly in favor of the defensive war, 
made and sold materials for clothing the army, for which he 
was disowned by the regular Society of Friends ; but nothing 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 139 

daunted, and being a man of very proper orthodox religious 
views, established at once another Friends' meeting, which, 
furthered bj the liberality of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, 
by the donation and title of a lot at the southwest corner of 
Arch and Fifth street, enabled him, with several others of the 
same belief, to establish their independence in the building 
thereon erected, where also they were known as ''Free 
Quakers," and by some the "Fighting Quakers"; here our 
Mr. Wetherill was the preacher until his demise. This pro- 
perty is still held by the "Wetherill family. 

His secular concerns, however, were in progress ; and under 
date of April 3, 1782, I find the following advertisement in 
the " Pennsylvania Gazette" : — 

" Philadelphia Manufactures — suitable for every season of 
the year, viz.: Jeans, Fustians, Everlastings, Coatings, etc., to 
be sold by the subscriber at his dwelling-house and manu- 
factory in South alley, between Market and Arch street and 
between Fifth and Sixth street, on Hudson's Square. 

"Signed, Samuel Wetherill." 

In addition to this he carried on dyeing and fulling, at the 
same time nursing and coaxing up his chemical fancies ; for 
even whilst thus engaged he was contriving other outlets for 
his genius. 

His two-story frame and its lot, at No. 9 South alley, seems 
to have been the nursery and development of his inventions ; 
for here his one-horse mill ground mineral secrets to powder, 
and his science analyzed their powers, virtues and effects, and 
at once tinted a popularity for the future. 

Genius, nurtured by perseverance and furthered by indus- 
try, propitiated the smile of fortune, and upon her tide he 
rode to her yqtj source, seeing that abundance crowned his 
enterprise. 



140 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

Another mill in Coombs's alley planted his popularity 
there, and helped his development at No. 65, as before stated, 
where the firm of Samuel Wetherill & Son heralded the fame 
of the sire. 

Samuel Wetherill, Jun.^ here was the associate of his father, 
whom the genius of the parent followed ; and he is said to 
have been the original in the manufacture of White Lead in 
this country. Certain it is that " Wetherill's "White Lead" 
took the lead for many years, and perha'ps even yet holds the 
palm ; but to return to the sire : 

His mansion and store was a nonpareil of his or even our 
time, and was an evidence of good architectural taste and the 
power that bore it to development. 

It was a very handsome structure of brick, three stories in 
height, about thirty feet front and in depth to Water street. 
The store was on the front floor at an elevation of some three 
or four stone steps, a private entrance being on the north side 
of the store, requiring one or perhaps two more steps to its 
entrance to overcome the declivity that sunk the level to 
Arch street. 

The parlor was on the second floor and the chambers of 
course above; and indeed in style and appearance had no 
superior for many a day after its erection. That, too, is sunk 
in the vortex of the march of improvement, and a vastly 
inferior new brick pile obliterates the dignity of its prede- 
cessor of 1793 to 1858. 

It is, however, no charm of dollars and cents that gives eclat 
to the memory of Mr. Wetherill, but, rich or poor, there were 
cardinal virtues in the man. He was an incorporation of the 
better feelings of humanity ; he possessed and practiced Chris- 
tian virtues as well as moral duties, which I could trace to 
the days of the Eevolution by good authority, but for the 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 141 

fear of some cliarge of unworthy motives ; but to speak of 
his neighborly and brotherly kindness, benevolence, charity, 
and loveliness of manner, as amongst his practical virtues, 
outside of his business skill, tact and industry, is but a small 
compendium of his proper due. 

I might say as much for his good lady, for her reputation 
will bear it ; but that would be but a repetition of the char- 
acter of her husband. 

Mr. Wetherill was, as before stated, the founder of the 
Society of Free Quakers, whose meeting-house, built in 1783, 
still holds its own at the southwest corner of Fifth and Arch 
streets, where its founder and owner preached regularly until 
within a short time before his death, 1816. 

They were often called "Fighting Quakers," not because 
they did fight, but because they thought self-defense was no 
transgression — they were not non-resistant. 

In person he was of tall and handsome figure, with a 
marked index of his many virtues ; the decrepitude of age, 
however, brought his wonted activity to the crutch, but his 
mental vigor gave nothing for time to feed upon. 

Mrs. Wetherill was equally interesting in personal appear- 
ance, being of good figure, a tall and handsome woman. 

They had three sons and one daughter, to wit : Mordecai, 
Samuel, John, and Sarah ; and was perpetuated in his busi- 
ness first by his son Samuel, then by his son John Price and 
Dr. William, and now by John Price, the younger, associated 
with his uncle Dr. William Wetherill : the third generation 
thus lighting up the memory of a pioneer in Philadelphia's 
early business efforts, and a citizen worthy of all that I at 
least have said of him. 

He was a native of Burlington, N. J., born there in April, 



142 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 

1736, and departed this life on tlie 24tli of September, 1816, 
in the eigKty-first year of his age. 

And now leaving Morclecai Wetherill at the corner and his 
brother John and Samuel Bndd in succession there, we have 
a narrow structure squeezed in between that and the mansion, 
a three-story brick of ancient date, in the occupancy of Dr. 
George Weed already in 1793, whence flowed the popular 
"Weed's Syrup," with other nostrums for the health and 
well-being of mankind in general. No. 69. 

Next below Wetherill's, No. 63, was another mansion of 
some dignity ; though but a mere reflection of its neighbor, 
it was a first-class three-story brick, in the occupancy of John 
M. Taylor, a merchant, afterward a broker. 1802. 

Mr. Taylor was the father-in-law of Hugh Calhoun, of the 
firm of Qustavus & Hugh Calhoun, eminent merchants of No. 
87 North Water street, heretofore noted. 

Nothnagel, Montmollen & Co. were eminent merchants in 
the occupancy of Nos. 61 and 63 in 1795, before the incum- 
bency of Mr. Taylor of No. 63. 

Passing a flight of steps to Water street (now closed), a 
little below, at No. 53, Tinee Cranshaw, a widow, and at No. 
51 Samuel Saviel, both Africans, were fruiterers in 1795 ; but 
afterward, in 1808, these shanties were torn down and a large 
store was put up, and the bell of the well-known firm of 
York and Lippincott gave daily notice of a sale by auction on 
these premises. 

They were the most prominent auctioneers of the day, and 
being very popular proprietors, they were beneficiaries of a 
large and profitable business. 

These gentlemen were brothers-in-law, Mr, York having 
married Miss Lippincott. 

Joshua Lippincott, was son-in-law to old Mr. Wetherill, 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 143 

having married Ms only daughter Sallie. He was a gentleman 
of unassuming manners and popular for his urbanity, whilst 
Mrs. Lippincott was an amiable participant of the best quali- 
ties of her parents — was well-beloved and highly esteemed, 
as well as Mrs. Lippincott as she had been as Miss Sallie 
Wetherill. 

Joshua Lippincott died February 11, 1857, in his eighty- 
fifth year. 

Mr. Yorke was a prompt, active, and good business man, 
of very dignified carriage, without hauteur, and was highly 
esteemed as a merchant and a gentleman. He died in 1815, 
aged forty -two years. 

In 1791, and long before, No, 43, at the south corner of 
another flight of steps to Water street, our late opulent 
Stephen Girard, was proprietor of a greengrocery, where 
edibles to all tastes, from an onion to an apple and a bean to 
a slice of pork, could be had for the money. He occupied 
through to Water street, and could sell at No. 31 there as at 
No. 43 above. 

Mr. Girard died December 26, 1831, in his eighty-fourth year; he was 
therefore in his forty-third year in this embryo of his business life : hence, 
we may fairly infer that Fortune kissed and embraced him after that time. 

For particulars of Mr. Girard see pp. 71-76. 



144 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Front street — East side continued — Arch to Market — Geo. Thomas — Sansom 
— Guest & Bancker — Samuel Archer — Joseph Cooper — Jane Taylor of the 
Golden Lamb — William Hemble — Paul Brown — Henry Tremper — Hannah 
Holland — William R. Thompson — John T. Sullivan — George Frederick 
Boyer. 

In 1800, our present venerable George Thomas, now in his 
eighty-seventh, year, was here in the full tide of merchandis- 
ing; first under the firm of Thomas & Shreve, at No. 87, and 
afterward, 1805, associated with James Martin, under the 
firm of Thomas & Martin, at No. 45. 

Mr. Martin is yet in harness, as a good, old-time merchant. 

Mr. Thomas was not only a good merchant, but a good, 
available counselor to the business fraternity, dealing out 
advice liberally — and 'tis said wisely — so that he fairly earned 
the title of " the Front-street Lawyer." 

Samuel, the father of the late William Sansom and Samuel 
Sansom, was here, at No. 45, in company with them, promi- 
nent and active in mercantile life, in 1802. 

In 1791, John Clifford was a dealer in hardware at No. 89; 
but subsequently, Thomas and John Clifford continued the busi- 
ness under the firm of Thomas & John Clifibrd ; they.were, 
probably, the sons of Thomas Clifford, of No. 29 North Water 
street (1791), the proprietor of Clifford's wharf, and Clifford's 
alley, which opens here at No. 29. 

They were ship-owners, and large importers of hardware 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 145 

from Liverpool. The "Philade]pliia," Capt. Bliss, was one 
of their ships in that trade, 1796, and long after. 

The popular firm of Guest & Bancker were extensively en- 
gaged in the importation of British goods on the above pre- 
mises, No. 39, in 1805 ; their importations were very heavy, 
compassing from £400,000 to £900,000 in a year. 

In connection with this fact, I may state here, that in 

1804 our foreign clearances were 618 vessels, 

1805 " " " " 617 " 

1806 " " " " 730 " 

1807 " " " " 712 
Our foreign exports were, from Philadelphia, 

1790 $17,523,866 

1796 7,953,418 

1809 9,049,421 

1810 10,993,398 

A master ship-builder of the time, states that, in 1810, there 
were 9,145 tons of shipping on the stocks. 

The above statistic is from Dr. Mease's " Picture of Phila- 
delphia," published in 1811. 

Mr. Charles N. Bancker, the survivor of the firm of Guest 
& Bancker, is even yet our cotemporary ; and though far ad- 
vanced in life, proves himself a good business man to all 
intents and purposes. 

He is, and has been from its beginning, the Secretary of the 
Franklin Fire Insurance Co., whose chair he occupied effi- 
ciently, and from its elbow is active beyond the years of an 
octogenarian. 

In 1799, our familiar friend, Samuel Archer, began his for- 
tune in the purchase and sale of East India muslins, at No. 
85, where his trade increased and drove him from these limits 
10 



146 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 

to wider borders ; and No. 28, on the opposite side, heralded 
him as an extensive importer of East India goods. 

Fortune here smiled upon his efforts, and wealth crowned 
his labors ; but fortune afterward frowned him into the chill 
shades of adversity, and left him a victim to her caprice. 

He deserved, as far as we can see, a better issue, for he was 
a worthy, unassuming citizen. Untainted of hauteur^ the zenith 
of his prosperity was but as the horizon of his debut, and none 
felt any difference of his maximum in contrast with their 
minvmum. 

Amongst his employees, we trace the father of our Morris 
L. & Joshua Hallowell, of the firm of M. L. Hallowell & Co., 
of No. 333 Market street, Avho, after his services to Mr. Archer, 
made a voyage to Canton, and on his return became a mer- 
cantile spirit of the day on his own account. 

This same No. 35 was, in 1802, the business spot of Joseph 
Cooper, a dry goods merchant — a plain, unsophisticated gen- 
tleman, of kindly manners, of enviable repute, and popular in 
the business and the social circle ; he lived in this house. 

He was the sire of the generation continued with our Dr. 
Collin C. Cooper, a grandson. 

A golden lamb, over the door of No. 25, looking north- 
ward, heralded the whereabouts of Mrs. Jane Taylor, whose 
reputation as a dealer in dry goods and trimmings, begat for 
her a pleasing and lucrative patronage. 

A very fixture was William Hembel, a bachelor, at No. 17, 
even from 1791 to far into the present century. 

Mr. Hembel was not only a merchant, but a fondler with 
the medical science, and was esteemed as well for his curative 
wisdom, as he was for the current duties of his counting- 
house. He was calm, cool, and deliberate of time's privi- 
leges, and very philosophically took the world as he found it. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HEE MERCHANTS, 147 

He was President of tlie Academy of Natural Sciences ; 
died 12tli June, 1851, aged eighty-seven years, and was buried 
at Laurel Hill. 

Our very eminent barrister, David Paul Brown, sprung to 
existence at No. 11. His father, Paul Brown, being a mer- 
chant tailor on this spot, in 1795 ; and the son David, an em- 
bryo literati^ after absorbing the pith of his accumulations of 
various minds in print, disposed of them from a case at the 
door. 

Henry Tremper, afterward more extensively engaged in the 
dry goods business on the west side, and of whom more in the 
next chapter, offered his wares in 1800, at No. 7 ; but amongst 
the variety of dry goods, shop, or store-keepers, there was 
none better known than Mrs. Hannah Holland, at No. 3. 

Mrs. Holland was very popular for her easy manner, and 
liberal allowance for an adverse opinion of a customer — 
always happy if they bought, and content if they did not. 

She was of very extensive proportions, heavy, and doubtless 
very inconvenient to herself, but sufficiently active in her 
store duties. "Wealth settled upon her, and she settled 
it upon her only child — a daughter — afterward Mrs. Sin- 
gleton. 

Mrs. Holland was the widow of Benjamin Holland, who 
occupied Nos. 3 and 5, in 1791, in the dry goods trade, which 
Mrs. Holland continued at No. 3, in and from 1802. 

It is, however, something more than a reminiscence, to 
trace a worthy cotemporary to his place of beginning. 

Our William R. Thompson, after a reasonable apprentice- 
ship with his uncle, John Thompson, of Second and South 
streets, set out for himself in the grocery trade, at this north- 
east corner of Front and Market streets, in 1812. 

Mr. Thompson being still amongst us, needs no representa- 



148 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS, 

tive or delineator of cliaracter ; his bland, open, and honest 
manner being but the concomitant of a countenance of un- 
mistakable integrity. He is an Irishman by birth, but a 
valuable American citizen in all his practice. 

John T. Sullivan occupied the up stairs (second story) of 
this store, as a book-bindery. His work was of the best sort, 
and his blank-books for the counting-house, accordingly ex- 
pensive — but they were durable. Mr. Sullivan was active in 
doors and out: in the one at the "press," and at the ''polls" 
in the other, for he was withal a lively politician. 

I cannot, however, leave this point without a reflex of an 
eccentric who had a way of his own somewhere in the square, 
about the years 1785 to 1790. 

George Frederick Boyer, cutler, a German, was a man of 
small stature, supporting, however, a mind fraught with that 
variety that floats on the atmosphere of visions, but with un- 
compromising nationality moulded his conceptions into stub- 
born facts. 

He was a German Lutheran by profession, but in many re- 
spects a Swedenborgian in practice; and this he exemplified 
in the arrangement of a room, furnished, but kept sacred for 
the assembling of the " Christian Society," which consisted 
of the twelve apostles ; besides this, a plate or more, with 
knife, fork, and napkin, and chair in front, at and of his din- 
ner-table, were for the silent presence of one or more expected 
guests from the world of spirits. Other mortal guests, how- 
ever, did not fare so well ; for, on one occasion, a real individ- 
ual came to dine with them, and brought his dog with him, but 
the dog's modesty kept him at the door. His master missing 
him, called out, "Luther! Luther!" "What!" says Mrs, B., 
" Luther ! after whom, pray ?" The man answered, carelessly, 
"Dr. Luther." "Dr. Martin Luther!" exclaimed she, indig- 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHAKTS. 149 

nantly, at the same time giving the clog a kick and a thrust 
to his master, saying : '' The ever-blessed Dr. Martin Luther 
be gone !" That man lost his dinner. 

His spiritual intercourse was not confined to his sanctum, 
nor his ordinary ; but the upper kingdom recognized him, 
and pictured his initials in stars, which he asserted he had 
seen with mortal eye, and so reported in his diary — which I 
saw some years ago — in the form of a quadrate of a circle, 
studded with stars, with " Gr. F. B." in large .type in the 
centre. 

Though small in form and feature, he abjured comparison 
or allowance for his measure, and very indignantly repulsed 
the kindly consideration of his shoemaker, when he offered a 
deduction on account of the smallness of his foot. 

He was no less tenacious of his right, title and interest in 
his domicil, which, during his ownership, he used to his 
liking, and went whithersoever he would ; but, in process of 
time, he sold his house to William Folwell, and fell sick and 
bed-ridden with consumption. His cough was troublesome, 
and expectoration frequent ; but, being no longer the owner, 
he refused the benefit of the soil, and spite of his wife's en- 
treaties to " spit out," he would crawl to the window to dis- 
charge the incumbrance. 

Although Mr. Folwell was a very clever and kind-hearted 
man, G. F. B. could not bear his presence, nor the sound of 
his foot, which, being deformed, was a contorted vision — at 
this time — to his unhappy brain. 

He was one of Nature's oddities, but by no means deranged. 

Mr. and Mrs. Boyer were alike small, but no less conse- 
quential than larger folks ; and it must have been amusing to 
see them, on their way to church, stop short at intervals, 
face each other, and thus hold a conversation. 



150 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

Despite the mixture of his creed, she was a rigid Lutheran, 
and turned an invited guest out of her house, as heretofore 
given, for desecrating the name of her patron saint. 

All of the foregoing is from reliable tradition — a cotem- 
porary intimately acquainted with the parties. But, this 
authority having long since departed, I cannot trace his siM ; 
but my details are the birth of a tenacious memory, unmis- 
takably impressed, for at least forty years. Please, therefore, 
accept it for whatever it is worth. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HEE MERCHANTS. 151 



CHAPTEE XXIY. 

Front street, West side — Arch to Market — The Hattery of Joel Gibbs — Thos. 
Peacock — Comegys — •William Lippincott — Conrad Keller — Harvey & Worth 
— John Folwell — John Morrel — Thos. Wotherspoon — James Arret — Solomon 
White — Widdifield — Cox — Gerhard — Isaac Norris — Wishard's Tallow-Chan- 
dlery — Joseph Shoemaker — Edward Rowley. 

In 1802, this soutliwest corner of Front and Ardi streets, 
was the hatter-shop and manufactory of Joel Gibbs. 

The workshop was in the cellar, open on Arch street, where 
I have often seen the men around the boiling caldron, dip- 
ping and withdrawing the felts in commendable haste, to save 
their own skin from the scald, rolling the felt as they with- 
drew it on the inclined plain, or plank slo|)e, to the mouth of 
the kettle, having leather palms protective of the infliction of 
every successive dip. 

These kettles, or caldrons, were encased in brick-work 
over a furnace below, surrounded at the top by a sloping 
ledge of two-inch plank, of twelve or eighteen inches in 
width, of quadrangular or sexangluar form, so that each man 
might have his place. 

Peruquiers were as necessary, though perhaps not as im- 
portant in those days, as they are now, and belonged to the 
assortment of life's busy scenes ; and the widow, Mrs. George 
Taverner, was no less desirable to ladies whom nature had 
neglected, than Joel Gibbs was to gentlemen, to top off their 
fancies. 



152 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

Wigging, braiding, and hair-dressing being the forte of 
Mrs. Taverner, hers was the seat of popularity, next below 
the hattery of Joel Gibbs, and there ladies, cut unkindly by 
dame Nature, debarred the pleasure of combing and arranging 
their own hair, resorted for the compensatory skill of Mrs. 
Taverner. 1800. 

Her husband, however, was here in 1795. 

At this period, 1795, Thomas Peacock at No. 64; Cornelius 
Comegys, No. 62 ; Baker & Comegys, No. 60 ; and William 
Lippincot, the father of Joshua Lippincot, at 56 and 58, were 
all prominent and active merchants : they were the life of 
trade, and gave tone to their quarters. 

But after this, in 1802, the Tinman of the day, Conrad Kel- 
ler, bestrode the domain of No. 64, and rung the welkin with 
the vibration of tin under the mallet. 

Indefatigable and industrious himself, his boys were en- 
tirely bereft of any indulgence ; and what the word of com- 
mand failed in, the cowhide enforced — a usual convincing- 
argument of the day, and one that often told far and wide, by 
the ring of the material under tlie active mallet of his young 
disciples, from the cellar — the central point of his employees 
long before the sun woke up day in the winter season. 

Mr. Keller was a German, and a rigid disciplinarian, but 
some of his boys were wags ; and as he often prefaced his in- 
tentions of castigation by taking a hearty pinch of snuff, or 
found use for one of his hands and kerchief for a more son- 
orous enunciation, his subject would slip his grasp and escape 
to bed, if at night, or the bench, if in the morning — for this 
was generally a morning or evening exercise. 

"Soil I cut-ee: oder soil I hau-ee?"* was the fearful, 

* "Shall I wliip, ov flay you?" 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 153 

threatening interrogatory ; but I never heard of any one being 
hurt ; the manner was more than the matter. This old neigh- 
bor was faithful to his bench, and his treasury told of the 
fruits of his industry. 

He lived long, and died rich. 

Harvey & Worth were prominent and very popular dealers 
in hardware, for many years after 1802, at No. 62. 

Mr. Harvey was eminent for consistent piety ; and Mr. 
Worth, in keeping with his name, a worthy citizen of un- 
tarnished character. 

Delving a little into the last century, touching 1795, the 
following array of mercantile life claims recognition : 

John Folwell, at No. 52. 

George Justice and Joseph Cooper, at No. 48, 

David Knox and James Henderson, No. 46. 

George Eyre, No. 40, and Marc Praeges & Co., No. 36, were 
all active constituents of the business life here ; and our staid 
and steady, benevolent Friend, John Thomas, too, at No. 32, 
was a highly esteemed neighbor, and an amiable principal 
of his store, a neat, tidy, and unassuming Quaker gentleman ; 
and no less so his next neighbor. No. 30, of No. 110, near 
Eace, to wit: Henry Drinker, Jr., whose presence at No. 110, 
has already been revived. 

This John Thomas was, at one time, 1805, the partner of 
Thomas P. Cope, under the firm of Cope & Thomas, No. 19, 
North Second street. 

There was a very extensive crockery store and warehouse at 
No. 24, giving very busy life to the neighborhood. The front 
store was large and capacious, but a wide passage or carriage- 
way inserted the block on the south, and led to the warehouse 
and stables in the rear. 



154 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 

Jolin Morrel was the very popular proprietor of this con- 
cern, and was justly esteemed for his urbanity, which his per- 
sonal appearance endorsed. 

He was a gentleman of the old school ; wore powder, but 
no particular fashionable cut of apparel. 

His carriage and pair bore him whithersoever he would ; 
and prosperity greased its wheels and fattened his horses. 

Morrel was the largest crockery dealer of that day, in Phil- 
adelphia. 

In 1791 he was at No. 23, on the opposite side ; but, in 
1793, we find him as a China merchant — far ahead of the refine- 
ment of our day — as above, at No. 24 ; but he was a fixture 
there for many years, for I write now with my eye on him, 
some time after 1800. 

Thomas Wotherspoon was well known at No. 22. Garri- 
son & Taylor, at No. 20, and Nathan Folwell at No. 16, were 
prominent dry goods merchants in this compass ; and James 
Potter, at No. 8, but afterward more prominent in Market 
street, near Sixth, on the south side, was probably in embrj^o 
here. 

James Arret was afterward the incumbent of this No. 8, in 
1805, and flourished extensively and prominently. 

The nucleus of the Josiah White family, Solomon White, 
was here, in the dry goods trade, at No. 6. 

This was the father-in-law of Josiah White, of Lehigh 

Navigation memory, and the lord of the country-seat of about 

four acres, at what is now Eleventh and Callowhill streets, 

where the mansion stood transverse on the farm, facing the 

Delaware, and where this sire and his domestic associates 

* 
enjoyed the pleasures of rural felicity. And here, too, our 

own Josiah White found a helpmate of kindred spirit, to carry 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 155 

out a life of benevolence, and spread their bounty without 
stint, amongst deserving mendicity.* 

It is but common justice to the memory of Josiah White, 
and his Mrs. White — as he thus presents himself in connec- 
tion with his father-in-law in my proper range — to record 
him as one of the most benevolent men of our age — whose 
study in life was benevolence, and security in death for its 
continuance. 

There was, however, other important life in this square, 
for besides the skill of William Widdifield, at No. 46, and 
William Cox, at JSTo. 50, both in the art of chair-making, 
there were five hatters in the row ; and the memorable musk- 
rat crouching over the door of No. 44, denoted the calling of 
William Gerhard there, even from 1795 to forty years there- 
after. 

This shop was at the south corner of Coombs's alley. It was 
originally a one-story tenement, but the grading of the street 
threw up the cellar-wall and exalted the humble feature of 
architecture to top, and dignify its former subordinate, and 
thus made a two-story building. 

This spot seems to have been the summit of the square ; the 
elevation of the rear of this and its neighboring buildiijgs, 
showed a slope north to Arch, and south to Market street, so 
that the houses, large or small, originally stood high in mid- 
air.f 

Isaac Norris, too, was a very respectable member of the 
same fraternity, at No. 42. 

* There is not a tree nor a shrub left to mark this domain; Callowhill street 
and Eleventh street squares the farm, and brick piles hedge, block, and en- 
cumber the freedom of light and air, that but a little while ago, had fair play 
to sing and smile through the open domain of Solomon White. 

I The elevation from the Delaware, high tide, was about twenty feet. 



156 PHILADELPHIA AND HEK MEKCHANTS. 

Mr. Norris was an active, intelligent, and industrious man, 
and with his neighbor, Joseph Kay, near by, gained and ob- 
tained the respectful considerations of a popular patronage. 

Besides these, John Sykes, at No. 38, and Benjamin Cooper 
at No. 54, were at the service of any customer for a good 
hat. 

But the line was assorted. Tallow, dips, and moulds were 
as important to the salon as they were at the houdoir, and 
somebody must make them ; mechanics or manufacturers were 
not so far below par as to be lost in their vats, or metamor- 
phosed at the bench, or the store. 

Thomas "VYishart and William Wishart were a pair of re- 
spectable bachelors, and eminent tallow chandlers, at the 
south corner of Pewter Platter alley — now called Jones's alley 
—and Front street. 1802. 

They were of the Society of Friends, and in demeanor 
characteristic of their profession, tame, modest, and retiring, 
faultless to the human eye, except their repudiation of marital 
discipline. They ought to have united, even at a risk, for a 
share of the " better or worse" of the matrimonial contract ; 
else they were proper men, and were well spoken of. 

Frugality was no doubt a cardinal point in their domestic 
economy, of which their housemaid seems to have been suffi- 
ciently imbued. 

Failures, in those days, were few and far between — yet they 
did occur, and often were ascribed more to extravagance than 
misfortune. 

One of the unfortunates happened to be a neighbor, and 
" Betty" discovered the cause at the bake-house ; for on her 
return with their savory portion, she told the bachelor 
brothers that it was no wonder that friend J. had broke, for 
their pudding smelt uncommonly strong of orange-flower 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 157 

water. Tommy and Billy Wish art did not indulge in tliis 
kind of odor. 

They were both of medium stature, and not over-burdened 
with flesh and blood; but their neighbor of No. 12, perhaps 
equalized the proportions, seeing that Joseph Shoemaker was 
equal to both together in size and weight. 

Mr. Shoemaker was a prominent and' popular silversmith 
there; and for many years before and after 1799, contri- 
buted to the busy scenes and doings of Front near Market 
street. 

Edward Eewley, more prominent in after-times, stepped 
from No. 7, on the east side, to No. 10, on the west, and fur- 
thered his interests by his own skill in buying and his wife's 
in selling, for she had the reputation of being a first-rate 
saleswoman. 1802. 



158 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Front street, East side — Market to Chestnut — Ephraim, Benjamin and Ellis 
Clark — John Vernou — James McCrea — John McCrea — C. F. Roussel — 
Shoemaker & Berrel — John Gill — Daniels & Phillips — John Hood — Patrick 
Moore — Blair McClenechan — Joshua B. Bond — Joseph R. Tatem — Tarrascon 
& Journel — Brugiere & Tessiere — James Duval. 

So early as 1791, our late venerable friend and townsman, 
Ephraim Clark, was established as a watchmaker at the south- 
east corner of Front and Market streets. 

He was succeeded by his brother Benjamin; and then again 
Benjamin and Ellis Clark kept up the line and the location 
for many years. They were brothers of John Clark, of Arch 
and Water street, all of whom were highly respectable and 
good citizens. 

The life of gossip is said to be in a barber-shop, there news 
gather and thence scatter, and John Yernou, a Frenchman, of 
Ko. 3; had the advantage of the ruminations of wit, wisdom, 
and report ; and if he had not the credit of enlightening the 
community, he certainly had that of being the centre of at- 
traction, to which his "poll" gave the silent but significant 
call. 

This, though a notch in the mercantile line, belongs to the 
score of the life of the times ; and although John Yernou's ap- 
pendages were not exactly merchantable, they certainly were 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 159 

7narJcetahIe to those to wliom a razor or scissors were a deside- 
ratum, All this apart. 

We have even now a most indefatigable and valuable citi- 
zen, uncompromising to misfortune, and unyielding to ad- 
versity, in the person, character, and indomitable perseverance 
of John McCrea ; whose root we trace to No. 5, here, in the 
retired James McCrea, who had passed the ordeal of mercan- 
tile life, and rested Lipon his laurels already, in 1799. 

This Mr. McCrea was an importer of Irish linens — an item 
of considerable importance in his day. There were, however, 
other very respectable sources of trade in this connection. 

C. F. Eoussel, a French merchant, at No, 7. 

Shoemaker & Berrel were insurance brokers, at No. 9. This 
Jacob Shoemaker was a heavy -built man, and was well known 
far into the present century. 

William Smith, Jr., No. 13, 

John Gill, No, 15. 

Daniels & Phillips, No. 25. 

John Hood, No. 27, and Patrick Moore, No. 33, were alike 
active spirits of 1795, and after ; they all sold and bought, 
and, for the most part "got gain." But Blair McClenechan, a 
familiar friend of your author, in his very green youth, was 
also here, at No. 33, in 1795, 

Mr, McClenechan was a public-spirited gentleman, lighting 
up the shades of his mercantile meanderings with the rays of 
some star of hope, for the prosperity of his adopted State or 
city, for Mr, McClenechan was an Irishman ; one of his stars 
was the Easton Delaware Bridge, which he, with others, 
warmed to life, by untiring time and attention to the lottery 
that sprung the arches and the pass from Pennsylvania to 
Jersey. 

He was a manager of that lottery ; and, as a boy, I have 



160 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

seen Him sit at tlie table below the wheels of Fortune, fin- 
nouncing fate, as he clipped the thread of the small-rolled 
ticket, and told its secret * 

This rotund old gentleman justly belongs to the tenacity 
of grateful recollections, for his benefits to public as well as 
private life ; but I must leave him for some other page of his- 
tory, and pass on to my line of march. 

After Joshua B. Bond, of No. 39, and Joseph R. Tatem, of 
No. 49, the popular French firm of Lewis Tarrascon & Victor 
Journel, held forth in the silk trade, at No. 51 ; they were 
amongst the earliest importers of Frencli silk goods, and were 
extensively and profitably engaged in the trade for many 
years after 1795. 

The firm of Brugiere & Tessiere, of Market street, in 1805, 
and onward, in the same business, grew out of that of Tarras- 
con & Journel, Charles Brugiere having been clerk and sales- 
man for them, and doubtless well informed of the art and 
mystery of ordering and buying and selling silks, long and 
short, under a proper tariff, associated with. Anthony Tessiere, 
in like capacity ; with our well-known and friendly James 
S. Duval, then gathering himself up by the same means, first 
at No. 80 North Second street, 1805, but subsequently, in 
1807, more extensive and progressive at No. 153, and thence 
to No. 179 Market street. 

* This lottery 'was drawn in Independence Hall, by two boys of ten years 
of age, perched on a large table, before a large box-wheel, from which, after 
a turn or more, by a crank, they — opening a small door in its side — drew a 
single ticket, held it up to general view, and then handed it to the manager 
below, who clipped the thread, and audibly proclaimed the secret of the 
roll. 

The boys were dressed in a blue suit, trimmed with gold, or tinsel lace, 
with sleeves tight to the arms, and bound at the wrists with the lace, to bar 
suspicion of fraud or deception. 1800 to 1802. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. IGl 

These were all tliree highly reputable firms, progressive 
from first to last ; but Brugiere & Tessiere progressed out of 
our limits ; and, as before stated, were amongst the first of our 
merchants to leave the confines 'of Philadelphia, thus help- 
ing to build up New York, — a small afiair of an emporium 
in 1815. 

11 



162 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Front street, West side — Market to Chestnut — James Stokes — Thomas Brad- 
ford — John Moss — John Taylor — John Strawbridge — Joseph Magoffin & Son 
— Benjamin Nones — William Hunt — Anthony Kennedy — Meeker, Cochi\in 
& Co. — John Field — Joseph D. Drinker— James Todd — William Mott — Ma- 
zurie Homaffel — Donath — The Post Office — John Thompson — John Stille, Sr. 
— Alexander Henry. 

This southwest corner is too well known for any perpetua- 
tion of mine, but my catalogue of life in its range calls for 
reference to its incumbent of 1795 ; but James Stokes, in bis 
looking-glass dealings, was as well known then, and long in 
after life, as the premises. He was certainly a thrifty mer- 
chant, for he left considerable land-marks; but he was as well 
a thrifty Christian, and left his mark, of a godly sort too, 
and the individual that met him by the way had need of a 
durable button-hole to hear him out, for he let no one go 
without a witness. 

Thomas Bradford, the root of the present generation of that 
name, was prominent as a bookseller, and editor of the news- 
paper called the " True American," at No. 8. 

This was a very old and original affair of a building ; nar- 
row, perhaps not over sixteen feet front, and any thing but 
convenient. It was sold, after his time there, to our very 
popular and familiar John Moss, (who could not have had 
much trouble to tear it down,) and he put up a store in its 
place. 



-^ j\jii^ 





'Mf 



y. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 163 

I cannot pass this name — althougli it is out of my limits — 
without a respectful memento. 

This Mr. Moss was an Israelite, a man of probity, upright 
and benevolent, and highly esteemed in all his relations in 
life : amiable, affable, and familiar. 

His/«c simile, in person and character, is well defined in 
his son, Joseph L. Moss, our fellow-citizen of Spruce street. 

Mr. John Moss w^as an Englishman, born in London, in 
1771, and came to the United States in 1793. 

His beginning in trade was small, but his perseverance was 
progressive ; and his uncompromising probity and winning- 
manners begat for him a popularity that handed him up to 
an enviable position in mercantile life. 

In process of time, his borders increased, and his busi- 
ness spread from his adopted to his native country, of 
Avhich his ships " Moss" and " Tontine" were periodical 
heralds. 

Steadiness of pursuit, and unwavering integrity, paid their 
way, and crowned his decline with a golden sunset ; for in 
addition to a very desirable reputation, social or public, 
his own vine, and his own fig-tree, shaded and nourished 
his latter day, and eased him from the theatre of mortal 
life. 

But the turning point of his weal, or woe, was incidental 
to the w^ar of 1812. 

After selling out his stock of dry goods, in Market above 
Fourth, to the late William S. Crothei'S, in whom his confi- 
dence induced a credit of from one to four years, he went to 
London, with letters of introduction to Bainbridge & Brown, 
whose confidence he gained to a full ratio of credit if needed. 

Goods of all description were plenty and cheap there, and 
scarce and high here. A coup de main presented itself as his 



164: PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

crank of tlie wheel of Fortune ; and " I'll risk all I have, some 
sixty thousand dollars," said he to B. & B., " and load a ship 
for America." At once he went into the purchasing of almost 
every variety of English manufacture ; which, however, far 
exceeding his own means, was borne out by his friends Bain- 
bridge & Brown. 

This done, he came home in a cartel, to await the arrival 
of his ''Brilliant"; but tedious and anxious was his waiting; 
sixty, seventy, and onward to eighty days passed, and no 
"Brilliant" — the gauntlet must be run ! Could she escape ? 
Doubts and fears beset him and his friends, yet some were 
willing to buy him out, ranging from seventy down to fifty 
thousand dollars for the cargo. As time narrowed her chance, 
" Keep your nerve," said his wife, though poverty was pinch- 
ing her and her charge. He took the hint; the sun of the 
seventy-ninth or eightieth day gilt the shrouds of the " Bril- 
liant" as she came round the point below, and secured his 
golden sunset. 

The cargo was sold at public auction, and yielded him a 
profit of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ; thus 
Fortune took him by the hand -and led him to her trea- 
sury. 

Mr. Crothers paid his paper — sixty thousand dollars. 
Bainbridge & Brown, theretofore strangers to him, lent him 
their confidence ; and the providence of God allowed his ship 
to pass the ordeal of squadrons, privateers, and blockade ; but 
to his credit be it recorded, none of these things marred his 
usual good behavior. 

After this his counting-house was at No. 75 South Front 
street, where he continued as a shipping merchant, from 1816 
to 1823, when he retired from mercantile pursuits. 

Mr. Moss was not only useful to himself, but was so, more 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS, 165 

or less, be3^ond tlie limits of his comptoir. He served in our 
City Councils, in and after 1830, and was there amongst the 
most estimable of his companions ; and his general liberal 
views rendered him always available. But I am not here to 
biographize or eulogize. I knew him personally, and am 
happy in this opportunity to pay the foregoing, as but a just 
tribute to his memory. 

He died April 5th, 1847, aged seventy-six years. 

Passing this interregnum, my regular course thus presents 
itself. 

The " True American" was sold out to Thomas T. Stiles, 
and passed from him to nonentity. 

John Taylor, an insurance broker, was the busy life of 
No. 10. ^ 

This Mr. Taylor was the father-in-law of our recent cotem- 
porary, John Strawbridge, a very intelligent gentleman and 
merchant of the day. 1795. 

Our present citizen of Germantown, John Magof&n, repre- 
sents the former firm of Joseph Magoffin & Son, merchants, 
of No. 12. 1795. 

Benjamin Nones, a highly respectable Hebrew, was favor- 
ably known as a dealer in dry goods, and celebrated for 
vending Madras handkerchiefs, at No. 14; he was after- 
ward appointed Notary Public in 1795, and many years 
after. 

This square was lively in merchandising, of whose opera- 
tors a synopsis here may suffice — to wit : 

Wilson Hunt, No. 16 ; Anthony Kennedy, No. 18 ; Meeker, 
Cochran & Co., No. 20 ; John Field, No. 24 ; Joseph D. Drinker, 
at the same number ; and James Todd and William Mott, were 
at No. 26; but from this point there were others more promi- 
nent and more generally known. Mazurie & Homaffel were 



166 PHILADELPHIA AND HEK MEECHANTS. 

prominent FrencTi merchants, at ISTo. 28, in 1791 ; con- 
tinued, however, far into the present century, by James 
Mazurie, 

James Donath, too, a German merchant, occupied the 
same premises with Mr. Mazurie, in 1795. Mr. Donath was 
highly respectable in his calling, and a very estimable 
citizen. 

But there was busier life than all this in this line — and 
what can be more so than a city post-office ? Here Eobert 
Patton, at jSTo, 36, administered to public curiosity, as well as 
to the commercial interests of the day, in the constant distri- 
bution of letters and other documentay inditings, to the dense 
and doubtless often clamorous gathering. 1793. 

This office had been at No. 7, on the opposite side, under 
the same post-master, in 1791. 

Our present venerable Jonah Thompson, in his tenure 
of life, yet represents the house of his father, John Thomp- 
son, of No. 38, in 1791, an importer and vendor of dry goods; 
whilst the father of our late John Stille, Jr., and Benjamin 
Stille, — Mr. John Stille, Sr., tailor, — a worthy citizen, was 
popular in his calling, at No. 40. 

Mr. Stille and his good lady were a pious pair, good Pres-. 
byterians, and estimable members of the Arch-street meeting, 
northwest corner of Third and Arch streets. 

Alexander Henry, from No. 17 South Second street, in. 
1791, moved mercantilely here, at No. 42, in 1793. 

Mr. Henry was as well known in this century as in the 
last. He was a prominent man in the importation of Irish 
linens, and other British dry goods, and an eminent man in 
hospitalities, charities, and benevolence. 

He afterward had his store, and resided in Market street, 
south side, next below the corner of Sixth street, in a very 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHAXTS, 167 

handsome, first-class, three-story brick house, remarkable for 
its semicircular marble steps, two and a sill, to the private 
entrance. 

This is the root of our present very gentlemanly Mayor, 
who is a son of John S. Henry, late a merchant on the 
Market street premises, as successor to his father, the subject 
of this notice. 



168 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 



CHAPTEE XXVII. 

The East side of Front street — Chestnut to Walnut — Ephraim Clark — Peter 
S. Duponceau— Richard Footman — N. McVicker — Loup — AValker — Reed — 
Ford — Rubb — Frazier — Joseph Roberts: Appearance and Character — 
Thomas Biggs — John McCauley. 

In 1791 Ephraim Clark was, as before stated, at the south- 
east corner of Front and Market street, but in 1793 he was 
at this southeast corner of Front and Chestnut, as watchmaker 
at No. 55. 

Our late venerable Peter Stephen Duponceau ranged here at 
No. 59, in 1793. Mr. Duponceau was an eminent jurist, a man 
of letters, and literary to a fault, far beyond the cover of a book. 
He seemed to forget every thing, even his own name escaped 
his recollection; but withal he was one of the most interesting 
men of the age, plethoric of literary lore and always happy 
in the dispensation of his literary wealth. His snuff-box and 
his tome were boon companions, but in conversation a hearty 
pinch of snuff seemed to elasticize his memory and quicken 
its issues. 

He was peculiar in manner; a gentleman, but trammeled 
with very imperfect vision, so that two pairs of spectacles were 
important to him — " to look before you leap." I have often 
seen him put on his second pair to be satisfied of his opposite 
party. 

He was of rather heavy physiognomy, but vivid in effect, 
dark complexion, very evidently thinking brow, and a full 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 169 

head of hair. He walked always in deep thought, and must 
needs be addressed or arrested to recognize :a passing ac- 
quaintance. His sortie was deliberate, and marked by the 
folding of his wrists behind him and the bend of his shoulders, 
as if borne over by the weight of his mental meanderings. 

In 1802 he was the lord of the manor of the northeast 
corner of Sixth and Chestnut streets, where, from his mansion 
at the corner, he retired to his literary sanctum on the rear, 
defended by a brick wall from the vulgar bruit of a public 
highway. 

Besides his legal and literary attainments and consequent 
duties, Mr. Duponceau was in early times, 1793, a Notary 
Public and interpreter of foreign languages, in which he was 
doubtless of the first class. 

He was a gentleman of the old school, and always at home 
in good manners despite his absence of mind. 

He died March 31, 1844, aged eighty-four years. 

Merchandising was vested in other parties, which the thread 
of my history again reunites. For Mr. Duponceau was not a 
merchant, but a lawyer. He was, no doubt, often the bosom 
of commercial ills. He certainly was a recipient of spare 
funds, for though a Huguenot refugee, he did not die poor; 
it was said of him that on one occasion, in a prize case, he 
received a fee often thousand dollars. But to my merchants, 
and of them the catalogue runs thus : — ' 

Eichard Footman was auctioneer at No. 65. Nathan 
McYicker, merchant, No. 67. John Loup, a French merchant. 
No. 71. Emanuel Walker, No. 73. John Eeed and Standish 
Ford, No. 91. John and Wm. Rubb, No. 93 ; and Nalbro and 
John Frazier, merchants, of No. 95. 

Here we trace a well-known and respectable citizen, grown 
into popular favor by time, circumstances and good manners. 



170 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

Joseph Eoberts was tlie apprentice and clerk to tliis last 
firm, whence he became a clerk in the original " Bank of the 
United States" ; and thence, after its close, an official and 
efficient helpmate to Grirard in his banking operations, where 
he continued to its close, and wound up his life in winding 
up the affairs of his early employer, the original United 
States Bank of 1791. 

Although the serious, sober countenance of Mr. Roberts 
was not exactly attractive, yet his manner was a negative 
to timidity — his apparent reserve was but the guardian of 
his self-respect, for whether as master or man, his intercourse 
was civil, respectful, and gentlemanly. 

His remarkably erect stature and his measured gait, seemed 
to be outward evidence of inward possessions ; his ver}^ 
" queue" seldom swerved from the line of its privilege. 

I have had business intercourse with him in all of his 
various public stations in life ; and whether as clerk, cashier 
or trustee, I never saw him, or heard of his losing his 
balance of decorum. He was a gentleman of the old school, 
and never lost any thing due to the character of a gentleman, 
from his clerkship to his trusteeship. 

He died at the age of eighty-one years, on the 23d of April, 
1856. 

Thus much to the memory of Mr. Roberts. I proceed with 
the thread of my history. The ways and means of suste- 
nance were not confined to mercantile pursuits ; the mechanic 
arts must have claims to localie as well as respectful patronage. 

Mathematical instruments were important to business life, 
and Thomas Biggs of No. 81, in 1793, and for many years 
after, was a popular leader in that profession, in which he was 
eminent, and resident in this neighborhood for many years. 

Coppersmiths, too, were not without the respectful patronage 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 171 

due to tlieir calling; and Mr. John McCauley of iSTo. 89 (1791, 
afterward 1805 at No. 119 South Front), was no less notori- 
ous in that capacity than the shipper that skirted the water 
in his rear ; but Mr. McCaulej, tired of the non-elastic din of 
copper tones, and perhaps for a more extensive mental outlet 
or active pedal movement, abandoned that art for the arts and 
mysteries of brokering, and established himself as broker in 
Dock street. Mr. McCauley married the sister of our dis- 
tinguished Commodore Stewart, and was therefore the brother- 
in-law to the Commodore. He was a tall, limber, and active 
— but not quick — mover in life, bending a little forward from 
his shoulders, well known to many of our citizens even into 
later times. 



172 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 



CHAPTEE XXVIIT; 

Front Street — West Side — Chestnut to Walnut — P. Hartshorne — Ebenezer 
Large — Sitgreaves — Orr — Evans — Fox — Robert Smith — John Elliot — Wil- 
liam Geisse — Dr. Grifi&ths — John Dixon — Jonathan Fell — Daniel King — 
John Connelly — Samuel Coates — Roberts Vaux. 

PATTisOiSr Hartshorne aud Ebenezer Large were tlie 
active spirits in the wholesale dry goods trade at this south- 
west corner ; and the line southward for some distance, to wit : 
from No. 46 to No. 60, was kith and kin in like pursuits, for 
here John Sitgreaves was sought in the capacity of a dry 
goods merchant at No. 48. 

Thomas Orr, in like request at No. 52, and John E. Evans 
& Co. at No. 54, told out their dry goods and the inducements 
to a liberal patronage, although in those days special plead- 
ings were altogether unnecessary. The vendors were respect- 
ively aud respectably known, and needed neither " Herald" 
nor " Drummer" beyond a respectful newspaper notice of their 
whereabout. But the clang of an auctioneer's bell occasion- 
ally shattered the quiet of the neighborhood, to announce a 
public sale by Edward Fox, at No, 56; and this auction mart 
was an insertion in the line. 

This No. 56 was variously occupied by John Connelly, 
Hacker, Brown & Co. (our David S. Brown), and finally, in 
1829, became the property and drug mart of the late Nicholas 
Lennig, of whom Charles Lennig and Frederick Lennig are 
even yet his successful successors. Nicholas Lennig was a 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS, 173 

German, a man of industry and enterprise, and bis fruit, 
lateral and collateral, have not fallen far from the tree. 

Mr. Nicholas Lennig came to this country in 1819, began 
in a small way, and died in 1835, in his forty-seventh year, 
leaving a good business and a good balance-sheet. 

Eobert Smith, however, took up the line next below at No. 
58, and pursued a popular and profitable trade in dry goods 
for many years ; for Eobert Smith was well, wide and popu- 
larly known here even in 1795, and more than twenty-fi.ve 
years after. 

Here the scene varies materially. Drugs nor pharmaceuti- 
cals were legitimately chattels of merchandise, but they were 
not the less important to the community ; and when prepared 
and sold by gentlemen of the craft, were always more or less 
incentives to patronage. 

John Elliot was a Quaker gentleman of kindly and winning 
manner, the popular apothecary of the neighborhood ; at the 
same time making and preparing looking-glasses for the ac- 
commodation of the public in general. No, 60 knew him, and 
a goodly patronage knew it. 

This No. 60 is a domain of some dignity, at least, for its 
dimensions. The house is of old style, but extensive in front 
and rear, the lot being about thirty-one feet front by over two 
hundred feet in depth, and widening in the rear from Gray's 
to Taylor's alley, having a front on each : the lot thus form- 
ing a T. 

It is now the property of Wm. Geisse, who has lived in it 
and kept store as dealer in furs, looking-glass plates and 
German goods in general, as tenant and owner, for full thirtj'' 
years. 

Mr. Geisse, though of some seventy-six winters, is still fresh 
in the vigor of a green old age, active, acute and untiring ia 



174 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS, 

the business duties of the day — a good specimen of a German 
constitution. 

In the day of the apothecary shop of No. 60, an M. D. 
flanked it at No. 62, and Doctor Samuel P. Griffiths was 
eminent here. Dr. Griffiths was amongst the early notables 
of his profession : 1802. Capt. John CoU-et occupied these 
premises in 1795. 

John Dixon was an oricrinal manufacturer of mustard at 

O 

Ko. 71. He was an English "Friend," and held popularity 
in his calling to his demise. 

Jonathan Fell, the father of our cotemporary Franklin 
Fell, succeeded Mr. Dixon in the business, and connected 
with the manufactory of mustard that of chocolate and the 
grinding of spices. Mr. Fell was the competitor of my friend. 
Christian Hahn, of No. 101 North Front street. 

Mr. Jonathan Fell was amongst the originators of the Le- 
high Navigation Company, whose business was transacted at 
his store, No. 52, which, after his No. 71, he erected for 
manufacturing and general business purposes. 

Of this Lehigh Navigation Company he was a member, 
trustee, or president, to the day of his death. 

It may not be out of place to note here, that the first suc- 
cessful parlor grate for burning Lehigh coal was in the parlor 
of this Mr. Fell, which implement is now in the possession of 
his son, Franklin Fell. 

Jonathan Fell died July 15, 1829, and was succeeded by 
his sons, C. & J. Fell, who afterward moved to No. 66, and 
thence to the south corner of Norris's alley and Front street. 

This Fell establishment, originating with Dixon, dates from 
before the American Eevolution, and hence was the oldest 
concern of the kind in Philadelphia. 

Daniel King, eminent as a bi-ass founder, was the Indus- 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 175 

trious occupant of No. 76, where patronage and fortune 
smiled him into a successful issue of the reward of his 
labors ; of which his son, Francis King of Arch street, is the 
happy beneficiary — a very excellent guardian of his father's 
legacies. 

In 1795, and for many years after, there was no one more 
accustomed to the clang of the auction bell than John Connelly, 
whose No. 78 was heralded from day to day by the ding-dong 
of the important porter, as he paraded on the pave, calling 
attention to the public for a chance at the sale then and there 
to be made. 

Mr. Connelly was one of the most prominent auctioneers 
of the day. 

Oar Manuel Eyre, of the firm of Byre & Massey, married 
the daughter of this John Connelly, at the premises of the 
auction store, No. 80 South Front street, the residence of Mr. 
Connelly, about the year 1805, by the Eev. James Wilson, 
pastor of the First Presbyterian church. 

This brings me to the merchandising mart of Samuel 
Coates, at No. 82, at the northwest corner of Front and Wal- 
nut streets. 

This gentleman was a very estimable member of the So- 
ciety of Friends, and was highly esteemed as the public 
benefactor in philanthropy, who, besides the minuiia of his 
well-doing, was chosen and served as an ef&cient member of 
the Managers of the Pennsylvania Hospital for more than 
forty years. He died June 7th, 1830, in the eighty-second 
year of his age, and was ably and properly memorialized by 
our late valuable and highly respectable Eoberts Yaux, which 
memorial was published in a public journal at the time, 
called " The Friend." 

Were it not out of my line, I might here memorialize the 



176 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS, 

memorialist ; and I am constrained to say, beyond my limits, 
that a more honest, public spirited, or more benevolent 
gentleman than Eoberts Vaux, would be hard to find in 
Philadelphia, even now in the advancement of its age and 
the boasted march of improvement. 

Roberts Vaux, under the firm of Vaux & Spangler, kept a wholesale dry 
goods store at No. 49 North Third street, about 1806. 



^ 



Jp t^ 





■^^^ci^^^/i^r' 



c/^/^fi,s. ^:^'^~r7d>^f7 



PHILADELPHIA AND HEU MERCHANTS. 177 



CHAPTER XXTX. 

Fi'ont street, East side — Walnut to Spruce — The Insurance Company of North 
America — Institution and Officers — John Vaughn — Edward Carrol — Isaac 
Wharton — David Lewis — Tribute to Francis Wharton — Odier & Bosquet — 
Lewis Glaises — Davy — Lewis — Custom-House, 1795 — Its Officers — Owner of 
the Premises — Ross & Simpson — Lindo — Bringhurst — Henderson — Davy — 
Roberts — Doran — Buckley — Gilpins — Charles Wharton. 

Strange as it may appear to the present generation, every 
step we take confirms the fact of these limits being the busi- 
ness, as well as the Court end of the town. The glare of Chest- 
nut street was certainly not yet ignited, nor the grandeur of 
Walnut street even in embryo 

The Insurance Company of North America was planted 
here, at the southeast corner of Front and Walnut, in 1795, 
the date of its institution, and gathered the neighboring mer- 
chants for its direction, which as matter of history, and recall 
of their manes, I give in detail. 

Of this Company, Ebenezer Hazard was the Secretary ; this 
was the sire of our cotemporaries, Samuel Hazard, our Penn- 
sylvania Historian, and Erskine Hazard, a momentum of the 
Lehigh Navigation Company ; and John Maxwell Nesbit was 
at the head — President of the following direction : — 

Charles Petit, Francis West 

Thomas L. Moore, John Craig, 

Eobert Ralston, John Barclay, 
12 



178 PHILADELPHIA AXD HER MERCHANTS. 

Magnus Miller, Michael Praegers, 

John Eoss, John Leamy, 

John Swanwick Joseph Ball, 

Walter Stewart, John Blodget, Jr 

Directory N. A. Insurance Co. 

The details of mercantile life continue and show forth, 

Firstly, at Nos. 109 and 111, our venerable and active John 
Yaughn, busily engaged in the importing and vending of 
wines ; but Mr. Yaughn was more than this — he was a philan- 
thropist of the first order — not of a smoldering spark of in- 
tentions, but a burning zeal to warm up the thrift and fur- 
therance of others, to which end he devoted much of his 
time and money, and to the time of his death, was indefati- 
gable in promoting the interests of strangers in a strange 
land. 

Mr. Yaughn was a bachelor, but of estimable moral integrity, 
a man of good reputation for benevolence, steeped in the milk 
of human kindness. 

He was a man of elastic energy, as I venture the evidence 
in the annexed portrait, but which an anecdote of his early 
life confirms. 

His father objected to his entering into the risks of mercan- 
tile life, in the fear of failure ; to which the son answered, " If 
I do fail, only give me a good oyster-knife, and I'll carve my 
way ;" but he carved his way without it. 

He was an Englishman by birth, prompt and fleet au pied. 
In winter, he wore a Scotch plaid cloak, carelessly thrown 
over his shoulders, the left side of the red collar jutting above 
the square of the other side — a memorable sign of John 
Yaughn, even afar off. 

Mr. Yaughn died on the 80th of December, 1841, aged 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 179 

eiglity-five years ; a decided loss to the poor, the widow, tlie 
fatherless, and the stranger in a strange land * 

Edward Carrol was a merchant, at No. 113, and Isaac 
Wharton and David Lewis were insurance brokers, at 
No. 116. 

This Mr. Wharton was the father of our late eminent 
lawyer, Thomas I. Wharton, and the grandfather of our 
very useful citizen, Francis Wharton, Esq., son of Thomas I. 
Wharton, Esq., as above, whose services in our public 
schools, and untiring care and promotion of the youth, 
thus under his charge, cannot be negatived by time itself. 
Though happily still with us, and long may he remain, I owe 
him this testimony, and am right happy in the acknowledg- 
ment. 

He is one of the most useful young men in the general 
cause of philanthropy, in our community. 

But to my regular path. James Odier, and Bosquet & 
Brothers, French merchants, have claims to notice, at No. 
117; and Lewis Glaises, in like manner, at No. 119. But — 

The United States planted her authority here, and divided 
the mercantile community right and left, until it plead " By 
your leave." 

* Our distinguished mechanical genius, Mr. Samuel V. Merrick, of steam- 
engine notoriety, originated his business capacity in his counting-house, and 
under the patronage of Mr. Vaughan. 1815 to 1821. 

Mr. Merrick, with his sons, now holds forth extensively under the incessant 
clang of the hammer and the rumbling roll of machinery, on Prime street 
below Fifth street, in full evidence of the growth and increase of popularity 
and prosperity. 

Mr. Samuel V. Merrick has the credit of being the originator of the Gas- 
Works in Philadelphia, having erected the first Gas-Works in 1836, after hia 
mission to England, in 1834, to investigate matters there, and mature them 
here, which he did as above, in 1836. 



180 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

In 1795, the Custom-House for our district was located 
here, occupying seventy-six feet front, and through to Water 
street. The officers were in the second story, where every 
wight, anxious to pass the ordeal, was compelled to pay obei- 
sance for the release of his ship-bound claims, and the further- 
ance of his speculative or more regular mercantile projects. 

The officers of the institution, at that time, were, — 

Sharp Delany, Collector. 

Clement C. Brown, Deputy Collector, 

Frederick Phile, Naval Officer. 

William Macpherson, Surveyor. 

John Graff, Weigher. Afterward Deputy Collector, 1805, 
and for many years ; and Frederick Graff, Deputy Weigher, 
at the same time. 

Thomas Pryor and William Milnor, Gangers. 

John Gill, Measurer, etc., etc. 

In 1791, however, this centre of the revenue of our United 
States was located at the southeast corner of Second and Wal- 
nut streets, under the same direction. 

The real estate occupied on Front street was the property 
of John Eoss, who owned the breadth of seventy-six feet 
through to the wharf inclusive ; and a part of the lower story 
of the Custom-House on Front street, was in the occupancy 
of Eoss & Simpson, as comiMir and general place of business ; 
all of which was the busy and important centre of the 
congregated mercantile community of Philadelphia, at that 
time. 

The further details of mercantile life were in — 

A. Lindo, a merchant, at No. 119. 

James Bringhurst and Henry Henderson, both at No. 131. 

William Davy and Joseph Eoberts, shipping merchants, at 
No. 141. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 181 

Michael Doran, at No. 143. 

"William Buckley, at No. 147 ; and 

Joshua Gilpin was a shipping merchant, at No. 149, in 
1799 ; but subsequently was extensively engaged in the manu- 
facture of paper, with his brother Thomas, under the firm of 
Joshua & Thomas Gilpin, whose paper-mills were located in, 
or near Wilmington, Delaware. 

Joshua Gilpin was the father of our well-known barrister, 
Henry D. Gilpin, Esq., formerly Attorney-General of the 
United States under the administration of General Jackson. 

In 1791, and long before and after, the late venerable 
Charles Wharton was actively engaged, first in the wholesale 
grocery trade, and afterward as an eminent shipping mer- 
chant and importer in the China trade. 

He occupied the premises No. 153, through to Water 
street, where he probably originated his grocery business. 

His residence was at No. 136 South Second street, near 
Spruce, a large and very superior mansion, having a flight 
of high and broad marble steps to its entrance ; it was a noble 
structure of the day. 

There were three of the same class adjoining each other ; 
the No. 136 was occupied by Mr. Wharton ; No. J 38, a double 
front, by Eobert Wain, and No. 140, by David Lewis. 

Two of these structures still show up their dignity from 
the second story, the lower fronts having been modeled to 
business purposes ; these are the former mansions of Eobert 
Wain and David Lewis, of whom (Mr. Lewis), Mr. J. E. Much- 
erer, President of the Phoenix Mutual Insurance Co., is a son- 
in-law. 

Mr. Wharton's house being about thirty feet front, has been 
transformed — two stores entirely obliterate its identity. 
Mr. Wharton had attained to venerability even in mv 



182 PHILADELPHIA AND HEE MEECHANTS. 

younger day, to whicli his white capacious wig gave tone, as 
well as the measured gait that passed his tall and well-formed 
figure from his portal to the pave. 

He died in the month of February, 1838; in the ninety-fifth 
year of his age.* 

* He was in the full tide of business in the days of the American Revolu- 
tion, seeing that the British burnt a fine ship for him, then nearly finished, on 
the stocks. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 183 



CHAPTER XXX. 

Front street, West side — Walnut to Spruce — Robert Ralston — Miers Fisher^ 
DaTid H. Cunningham — J. M. Nesbit — Stewart — Barr — Blight — Dawes — 
Francis West — John West — Dr. West — Samuel R. Fisher — Mordecai Lewis 
— Joseph S. Lewis — Sontag — John Morton — Purdon — Lowndes — Dr. Dorsey 
— Richards — J. McDowell. 

The mercantile community seemed to rally in this imme- 
diate compass, tlie east and west side of this square ; and our 
eminent merchant and valuable citizen, Robert Ralston, begins 
the line at No. 90, in 1793 ; but afterward, in 1805, etc., he 
was on the east side of Front, at No. 103, above Walnut; but 
whether here or there, his business duties were seasoned with 
the life of humanity, benevolence, and active Christian char- 
ity, and to do good unto all men, seemed ever to be his prac- 
tical motto. 

Miers Fisher, counselor at law, at No, 92, intercepted the 
line, but not the notoriety of respectability, for Mr. Fisher 
was prominent and popular in his profession, and of no small 
moment in his social relations, as a member or adherent of 
the Society of Friends. 

David H. Cunningham and John M. Nesbit, trading under 
the firm of Cunningham & Nesbit, were shipping merchants, 
at Nos. 94 and 96 ; and James Stewart and James Barr, were 
their neighbors, of No. 100, in the same occupation, under the 
firm of Stewart & Barr. 



184 PHILADELPHIA AND HEE MEECHAKT3. 

Peter Blight, heretofore noted as an extensive shipping 
merchant and West India trader, of Boss's wharf, was resi- 
dent here, at No. 102. 

Abijah Dawes was at home here too, at No, 106, but abroad 
with his brother. Eumford Dawes, as copartDers, shipping and 
importing from their countingdiouse and stores, east side of 
Water street below Market. 

Here we have the root of an eminent, popular, and widely- 
known sea-captain, as well as of a well-known physician,, for 
rhany years on the same spot. 

Francis West, in company with his brother, John West, 
under the firm of Francis & John West, were popular mer- 
chants, at No. 108, 1791, and for many years after. 

This Francis West was the sire of Capt. James West, who 
was long and favorably known as a commander in Cope's line 
of Liverpool ships, and afterward, in New York, as a popular 
commander of the finest steamship in the Liverpool trade. 

Dr. Francis West succeeded his parents in the homestead 
of No. 108, and grew in his practice of medicine there ; but 
his assiduity and fearless attention to the sufferers of the 
Cholera of 1832, contributed much to his fame and deserved 
popularity ; and his disinterested liberality justly links him 
in the chain of benevolent men. 

I must remark here, that as we near Dock street, the line 
of the latter being diagonal or scaunt, connected the Front 
street houses with the Dock street front; and hence we have 
Samuel E. Fisher, dealing in dry goods on Dock street, and 
retiring to his domicil on Front street, when his daily labors 
were over. 

So, also Mordecai Lewis was largely engaged in the Cal- 
cutta, China, and European trade, popular and highly respect- 
able, with his counting-house on Dock street, whilst his 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 185 

whereabouts was as well known at No. 112 South Front 
street, of course continuous with his counting-house. And — 

Here again, we have a sire of municipal importance, and to 
Mordecai Lewis, the father of Joseph S. Lewis, prominent in 
our City Councils, and forward in the water-works improve- 
ments of Fairmount, and even now sculptured at Laurel Hill, 
belongs this memento. 

Mordecai Lewis was also a prominent and active manager 
of the Pennsylvania Hospital, of which he was Treasurer from 
1780 to 1799. His son, Joseph S. Lewis, succeeded him in 
that capacity, and served the institution till 1826. This Jos. 
S. Lewis was also President of the Schuylkill Navigation 
Company for many years, and there discharged its arduous 
duties to the entire satisfaction of the Company. 

Mordecai Lewis, the father, was a respectable and efficient 
member of the Society of Friends. 

William S. Sontag was prominent, at No. 114, as a shipping 
merchant in the West India trade, which, as heretofore shown, 
was as profitable as it was extensive, and the life of the " Yo, 
heave ho !" of the merry darkies, that rent the air with their 
vocal powers. 

John Morton, of Morton's wharf, a dealer in flour there, re- 
tired here, at No. 116, from the laborious trusts and duties of 
the day, and after his inercantile pursuits was elected President 
of the Bank of North America, and filled his office success- 
fully and creditably for many years. He was the third presi- 
dent in succession of that institution. 

Here again, at No. 122, we have another root of a promi- 
nent character. " Purdon's Digest" is a work of notoriety, 
and popular at the bar of our Judiciary ; and John Purdon, 
the father of the author of the *' Digest," was not without his 
popularity as a dealer in dry goods here, sixty years ago. 



186 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 

Josepli Lowndes, though a prominent silversmith, was 
equally well known at No. 130, as an importer of China 
goods. 

His neighbor of No. 132, was an M. D., represented in the 
person, skill, and services of Nathan Dorsey. 

Lime was not exactly merchandise, yet it was desirable and 
important to the cementing of warehouses and other recep- 
tacles of safety. Lime -dealers, therefore, were a part of the 
corporation of mercantile stability, and in this commodity 
Samuel Eichards was extensively engaged at No. 136. 

This square closes with another timeist : and if John Mends 
was the minute-man on the other side, John McDowell was 
no less so here ; for doubtless many a one stood before his 
regulator over the door to mark the dots of his dial, and per- 
haps haste to the point of his engagement. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 187 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

Front street, East side — Spruce to Pine — Gurney & Smith — Daniel Smith — 
His sons, Richard S., James S., Francis Gurney, Daniel S., Charles S., and 
William S. — Moses Kempton — John Jones — J. 0. Thompson. 

We come here to the drawbridge and its wide and busy 
domains — still picturesque in my eye ; but its details belong 
not to me ; but rather to the venerable Watson be the credit 
for its details. 

My business is to pass to the line of my general observa- 
tion, and mark the spots of mercantile life as ihey marked 
the history of early times. 

Varied indeed was life here for a space ; for after Andrew 
Bankson and James Stuart's pharmaceutical mart at the south- 
east corner of Dock and Front streets, mercantile claims 
were sunk, or intercepted, by a darksome row of small board- 
ing-houses, even drying their necessary apparel at their front, 
and claiming primitive simplicity and nonchalance as a pre- 
rogative. 

But with due deference to the mercantile community, there 
were others who contributed to the dignity of a neighbor- 
hood ; and dark and sombre as the row before us, there was a 
speck of light from the herald of an M. D. Doctor John 
Porter, at No. 191, doubtless claimed and obtained the re- 
spectful attention due to his profession. 

The reality of mercantile prowess, however, and the life 
and spirit of its importance, gave tone to the square at No. 199. 



188 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 

Gurney & Smith, were the active incumbents here in 1799, 
extensively engaged in the European and Calcutta trade, 
commercially interesting and important to the business com- 
munity.'^ 

As copartners they were popular — and favorably so ; and as 
individuals, no less so. The one as General Francis Gurney, 
of whom, in turn, on the west side ; the other as Daniel Smith, 
more in the immediate interests of the protective policy of the 
community, of which he before, had been a very prominent 
party. 

He appears to have been a germ of political economy, and 
" insurance from life by fire" or water seems to have been a 
favorite scheme in him, from his counting-house to the elbow 
chair of indemnity for his fellow-citizens ; for after his mer- 
cantile career he served successfully and satisfactorily as 
President of the Insurance Company of the State of Pennsyl- 
vania, at the northeast corner of Second and Dock streets, for 
many years. 

His spirit, however, seems not to have departed with his 
mortal, seeing that sprouts of his acumen have started from 
the germ, and very respectable branches even now wave per- 
petuity to his manes. 

It is not a little remarkable that of six sons, three of them 
herald the memorabilia of their father's fame ; and even a junior 
branch fans the fame of his sire as an ef&cient and prominent 
item in the annals of insurance officers. 

* As a link of history I note tnat the subsequent and celebrated — as well 
as our lamented Commodoi-e Decatur — was clerk in the counting-house of 
Gurney & Smith, antecedent to his naval celebrity. 

It is a remarkable fact coincident with his clerkship here, that he was sent 
by Guiney & Smith in pursuit of, and ordered the keel of the fi-igate "Phila- 
delphia," which he afterwatd commanded. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 189 

In the first place, his sire, even in his mercantile life, after 
being one of the promoters of the Tree Insurance Company 
of Philadelphia, was an underwriter of policies at the Old 
Coffee Honse, where capitalists and men of courage were wont 
to resort and take a maritime risk; then president of an 
insurance ofl&ce respectable and popular. 

The vein courses in his son Erancis Grurney Smith, and the 
chair of the Columbia Insurance Office is assigned to him for 
a season ; then James S. Smith, Esq., aforetime a gentleman 
of the bar, gives dignity and character to the chair of the 
insurance office of "The Philadelphia Contributionship" for a 
terra of seventeen years ; whilst his brother, Eichard S. Smith, 
is the efficient incumbent of the chair of " The Union Mutual 
Insurance Company:" and here I am met by the third genera- 
tion, of the same spirit. 

James S. Smith, Esq., from the wear and waste of time, 
being now in his seventy-seventh year, has laid off his official 
mantle, and Ms son, James Somers Smith, has been endowed 
with its honors — an appointment, I am free to say, worthy of 
both sides of the question. 

The whole family, as far as I have known them, have been 
prominent in usefulness, in public as well as social life, and 
gentlemen of winning suavity of manners ; and to this day 
have lost nothing of their deserved popularity. 

Francis Gurney Smith, the second son of our Daniel, has 
been a popular vestryman and warden of St. Peter's Church, 
Third and Pine street, for many years, an efficient protector 
of the rights and immunities of the temple and its grounds — 
a competitor of our worthy Moses Kempton, a very safe- 
guard of the same of Christ Church, Second near Market, 
who I name and memorialize here as a clerk of Jacob Clark 
of Water next below Arch — as a merchant in Front below 



190 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS, 

Arch in Ms hey-day, and as a useful member of society and 
especially so of the church of his adoption. 

But to the link of the Messrs. Smiths. To Mr. Francis G. 
Smith may be ascribed the protectorate of the Musical Fund 
Society of Philadelphia, of which he has been treasurer, and 
it may be justly said, guardian, faithful to its trusts, from its 
beginning from nothing, to the hall that now heralds the 
fame of the Musical Fund Society, 

Daniel Smith is a third son, once ot the firm of Haven & 
Smiths, subjects of depression for a time ; but, elastic and re- 
active, surmounts the hiatus of adversities and square ac- 
counts. Of this firm, Eichard Smith was also one. 

Our cotemporary Wm. S. Smith, for maoy years in the 
salt trade, and I believe successfully, and Charles S. Smith, 
for thirteen years treasurer of the Girard estate, bring me to 
a happy issue of that family of Smiths. 

This group of sons, successive in respectability and suc- 
cessful in their business relations, all living at this time, and 
ranging from sixty-one to seventy-six in years — being more 
than is commonly allotted to mortality and the changes and 
chances of human life — though foreign in detail to my legiti- 
mate purpose, is worthy of a line in history, and as such I 
venture the' interregnum without fear, favor, or reward. 

Mercantile notoriety appears to end here with Gurney & 
Smith, after noting John Jones, a merchant of No. 211, and 
Doctor Jacob Orier Thompson, who was doubtless an active 
spirit of the days of 1795 in this region. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS, 191 



CHAPTEE XXXII. 

Front street, West side — Spruce to Pine — Doctor Harris — J. W. Irwin — 
George Plumstead — Archibald McCall — Francis Gurney — George Sibbald — 
Dominick Joyce — Doctor James Mease — James Latimer — William Condy — 
M. M. Carl — Condy Raquet — Chandler Price — Captain Toby. 

The southwest corner here was from time immemorial 
a watchmaker's shop and residence; the most prominent 
incumbent of which was for many years John Menzies, and 
merchandising to Union street wa,s limited. The line was tame 
and rather sympathetic with the other side of the way, though 
a better class of houses and occupants, gave tone to the 
neighborhood. After Doctor Eobert Harris, of No. 158, who 
had his day and served his generation of 1795, mercantile 
immunities seem to have been confined to John W. Irwin, of 
No. 164, and George Plumstead and Archibald McCall, in the 
East India trade, at No. 166. 

The southwest corner of Front and Union even now sup- 
ports a mansion of antique dignity, picturesque as well of its 
times as of its early proprietor. 

Here we have General Francis Gurney, of the firm of 
Gurney & Smith, who in all probability located here in 1788, 
as a business man, and continued here in his commercial 
intercourse until Gurney & Smith bought, of Daniel Offley,* 

* Daniel Offley was a prominent member and minister of the Society of 
Friends. He died in 1793, a victim to his philanthropic energy and humane 
sympathy in administering to the poor subjects of the yellow fever of that 
year, and fell himself a sacrifice to their comforts and necessities. 



192 PHILADELPHIA AND HEK MERCHAXTS. 

his blacksmitli's sbop nearly opposite ; and the comptoir of 
Gurney & Smith was a prominent mart of commercial interest 
in that square, where 1791 finds them. 

Mr. Gurney, however, has claims to special notice. 

First, we have him as a native boy of Montgomery County 
of 1738. 

Secondly, a soldier in the British army in 1756, against the 
French and Indians on the frontiers of Canada. 

Thirdly, we find him a marine in the British fleet against 
the French West India Islands. 

Fourthly, in 1775, we find him a captain of infantry in the 
American army against the British ; and in 1776 a lieutenant- 
colonel in the eleventh regiment of the Pennsylvania line. 

He resigned his commission in the army from some disaf- 
fection at Yalley Forge, but retained his public spirit in State 
and municipal services, more or less, during the thirty years 
of his mercantile labors, and retained his colonel's commis- 
sion from 1786 to 1799, when he was promoted to the rank 
of brigadier-general, in which he was actively exercised 
aa:ainst the Western Insurrection of 1794. 

Mr. Gurney was thus a valuable and available citizen from 
the beginning to the very end of his life; and whether boy, 
soldier, captain, colonel, general, merchant, or retired citizen, 
we find him an active, energetic and important citizen of the 
United States, though unassuming and modest in all his rela- 
tions in life, whether public or private. 

His cotemporaries picture him as a remarkably fine-look- 
ing man, full six feet in height, well built, of dignified bearing, 
and distinguished in appearance. 

He died May 25th, 1815, aged seventy-seven years. 
His mansion of Union and Front street now belongs to his 
son-in-law, Charles A. Poulson, Esq., who lives next below — 



PHILADELPHIA AJSTD HER MERCHANTS. 193 

of whom it is in my patli to note that this relic could not be 
in better hands. Mr. Poulson being a very valuable anti- 
quarian, and liberal in his expenditures for ancient land- 
marks of our city, of which his portfolio is vastly rich, and- 
his notes and annotations replete with valuable statistics of 
our city. 

Greorge Sibbald, clerk in the Eegister's Office of the United 
States in 1793, presents himself at No. 170 as a shipping- 
merchant, and Dominick Joyce joins in mercantile interest at 
No'. 174. 

No. 176 varied the mercantile chain here, in the medical 
emporium of Doctor James Mease, a link to elasticise lon- 
gevity if possible. Doctor Mease was well-known, and doubt- 
less popular in his day, of 1791. 

He was the author of the " Picture of Philadelphia," pub- 
lished in 1811, esteemed as a valuable book of reference in 
its day. 

Legal advice, though probably not so necessary then as 
now — still knots were to be untied and perhaps tied too — was 
to be had of James Latimer, Jr., at No. 178 ; and 

William Condy, at No. 182, was always equal to the wants 
or the suggestions of clients. 

This Mr. Condy was amongst the active originators of the 
Swedenborgian church, the first in Philadelphia, built at the 
southeast corner of Twelfth and Greorge streets, of which 
Maskil M. Carl was the pastor, about A. D. 1820 ; in which, 
right or wrong, Mr. Condy was faithful to his profession, and 
Mr. Carl a devoted pioneer in the ministry of that denomi- 
nation. 

As matter of history, I take occasion to note, as the edifice 
has given way long since to domestic requirements, that it 
was a square building, having a dome, of limited area in the 
13 



194: PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

interior, and an organ gallery immediately over tlie pulpit at 
the east end of the church. 

Our Mr. Wm. Condy and his nephew, Condy Eaquet, were 
efficient members of the Society ; and our old friend, Daniel 
Thunn, a happy believer in the views of Emmanuel Sweden- 
bo rg. 

Chandler Price, after the firm of Morgan & Price, of No. 
170 North Front street in 1779, was here at No. 214 in 1802 

He was long and favorably known as a pioneer in the New 
Orleans trade, when it first became a part of our Union, and 
established a line of packets to that port. Our venerable 
Captain Simon Toby commanded one of ships, the " Ohio," 
for several years in that trade, and was highly esteemed for 
his urbanity, prudence and success. 

After his — Captain Toby's — retirement, he was the Presi- 
dent of the Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, 
which oflEice he filled very acceptably to his constituents for 
many years. 

He is still living, being upward of eighty years of age. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HEE MERCHANTS. 195 



CHAPTEE XXXIII. 

Front street — East side — Pine to South — Ignatius Paillard — Francis Coppinger 
— Levinus Clarkson — Jones & Clark — Capt. William Jones — Samuel Clark — 
John Swanwick — Roe Brumard — Joseph Read — S. & W. Keith — Derrick 
Peterson — Robert Bridges — Heni-y Mitchel — Augustine & John Bousquet, 
1799— Peter Bousquet, 1805. 

The atmospliere of mercantile life spread onward, and tlie 
corner here marked its continuance. 

Ignatius Paillard set this corner as a mercantile mart, and 
Francis Coppinger followed suit next below, at No. 221 ; and 
again, Levinus Clarkson strengthened the line of shipping mer- 
chants here, but the firm of Jones & Clark, at No. 225, in 1800, 
seems to have had more in them than the ordinary run of 
mercantile prowess ; the firm, however, built and owned many 
vessels to carry out their East India, Canton, and European 
trade. 

Wm. Jones had been a sea-captain himself, and had some 
genius in draughting and constructing vessels tO' meet the 
caprice of old Neptune ; and hence, probably, in 1812, Mr. 
Madison, our President of the United States, chose him for 
Secretary of the Navy, in which, after a service of some three 
or four years, he was appointed the first President of the 
Bank of the United States, of 1816. 

After this we find him the Secretary of the American Fire 
Insurance Company, at No. 101 Chestnut street ; and again 
we have him Collector of the Port of Philadelphia, where he 



196 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS, 

also remembered lais former business associate, and no doubt, 
influenced the appointment of Samuel Clark as naval officer, 
Jones & Clark had, therefore, made service in mercantile life, 
seen service in maritime risks, and done service to the general 
government of the United States. 

John Swanwick, heretofore noted, was resident at ISTo. 237, 
but was continuous in presence and profession tbrougli to 
Penn street, where the changes and chances of mercantile life, 
either lit up or beclouded his path as common to all men, 

Eoe Brumand, at 247, and Josph Eead, at 271, contributed 
to the mercantile life of 1795, in the square ; and Samuel & 
William Keith counted the cost of their many ships, and 
averaged the profits of freight or charter as incentive or tact 
suggested : for they were shipping merchants as well as 
owners of many vessels, 1795, and many years afterward. 

In 1823, Samuel Keith had withdrawn from the immediate 
risks of merchandising, and became supervisor of the risks 
of others, as President of the Delaware Insurance Companj^, 

Intermediately in this quarter at No. 223, Derrick Peterson 
was resident; whilst as active lumber merchant he was en- 
closed in lumber, timber and boards below Almond street ; 
withal, he was an important item of his day there. 

So also was Kobert Bridges, of ISTo. 259, the sailmaker of 
the day, and the haas of James Forten, set forth in the proper 
place of his hey-day: and again, Henry Mitchell, a rope- 
maker, of 261, as important to Bridges as he was to Captain 
McFadden of 275, who kept him alive to their importance. 

Augustine & John Bousquet were prominent and popular 
French merchants at No. 267, a highly -respectable mercantile 
house of 1799, long before and after. But Peter Bousquet, 
our presen venerable fellow- citizen, came over from France 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 197 

in 1805, and continued tlie respectability of tlie house for 
many years. 

Mr. Peter Bousquet is therefore still amongst us, a pleasing 
specimen of a retired njerchant, and a happy issue of the sere 
and yellow leaf of human nature, endowed with a rubicund 
countenance and the beau ideal of a gentilhomine a son vise. 



198 PHILADELPHIA AXD HER MERCHANTS. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Front street — West side — Pine to South — George B. Dawson — J. & W. Lynch 
— Lewis CLapier — Budaraque — John Latour — J. C. Stocker — John Morton 
— John Barclay — Philip Kelly — Samuel Reid — James Traquair. 

Oisr this side of tlie square tlie mercantile community di- 
minished, and the principal life of merchandising seems to 
have been vested in George B, Dawson, of No. 184, and John 
& Wm. Lynch, of No. 186; but the most prominent spirit of 
the time, 1802, was the popular Lewis Clapier, an extensive 
shipping merchant, resident next below the corner of Lombard 
street — counting-house on Lombard street. 

Mr. Clapier was in the French trade, and with his chief 
clerk, Mr. Budaraque, held commercial counsel with his brother 
in Marseilles; but besides this his commercial interest con- 
nected him with China, East India, Havanna, Yera Cruz, etc., 
1802 to 1826 and after. He owned many ships, all paying their 
way profitably. His Mr. Budaraque was an important fixture 
of his comptoir, an efficient aid in his pursuits. He was, how- 
ever, an inveterate smoker, seldom without a cigar — at read- 
ing, writing or ciphering, a cigar ! indeed, it was said of him, 
that he could smoke two at the same time : to wit, one in each 
corner of his mouth. 

I cannot pass this corner without a respectful notice of 
John Latour, celebrated, if for nothing else, as the importer 
and very popular vendor of salad, or sweet oil. 

He was a merchant in the French trade at No. 8 Lombard 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 199 

street, but subsequently located on tlie east side of Front 
street, nearly opposite to Lombard street ; but whetlier here or 
tbere, salad oil memorializes him to this day. 

He dates there at and before 1807, 

But other business life animated the scenes of this compass. 

John Clement Stocker filled the aldermanic chair of No. 
188 South Front street, in 1795, where he doubtless kept the 
wayward in check by admonition or commitment ; whilst his 
neighbor, Captain John Morton, relieved him from time to 
time from the onus by the shipment of the unwary and unto- 
ward disturbers of the peace. 

Mr. Stocker was a prominent member of the community, 
and active and successful in business life. 

His exports to, and imports from China told well to his 
treasury and furthered his liberal disposition, for his reputa- 
tion was that of a helpful friend in need. As a merchant he 
was popular, and his memorabilia is still unscathed by time; 
whilst as a public man, the records of the Insurance Com- 
pany of the State of Pennsylvania, as well as those of the 
Bank of Pennsylvania, bear testimony of his services there 
for many years. 

He was a man of wealth, with an open hand and a sympa- 
thetic heart. 

Of the several first-class three-story brick houses in this 
region, No. 216 Avas the residence of John Barclay, Esq., one 
of the early presidents of the Bank of Pennsylvania, and No. 
218 that of Philip Reily, another merchant of the day. 

Samuel Eeid, too, had his day as merchant at 231 : and thus 
far closes the mercantile array. 

This same No. 234 was aforetime the dot and line of James 
Traquair, a spirited and progressive stone-cutter, who came 
over from Greenock in 1784. 



200 PHILADELPHIA AND HEE MERCHANTS. 

Mr. Traquair afterward built up the soutlaeast corner of 
Tenth and Market streets, with lower marble front, had his 
yard on the rear, and put up a marble pigeon-box in the 
rear of his dwelling — the first of the kind in Philadelphia. 
He bought much of the remains of. Morris's Folly, and 
incorporated some of it in his new building, which building 
was remarkable in its day and location. 

We trace here the father of the late Adam Traquair, City 
Commissioner, and the grandfather of James Traquair, now 
one of the firm of Morris L. Hallowell & Co.. silk merchants 
of No. 3 33 Market street. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 201 



CHAPTER XXXY.— Conclusion. 

Review and General Remarks. 

Having concluded my search and research, some apology 
may be due for the apparent incongruities of my details.- 

My History purports to be of the mercantile community 
of some fifty to seventy years ago ; and so in fact it is — but 
perhaps, in form, a mixture ; and hence it behooves me to de- 
fend myself for my course, and satisfy the reader for the 
shades of the picture. 

To write a mere detail of merchants, as they stood side by 
side — however historical — would be but a meagre relation of 
facts, without a tint of the variety that lights the course and 
gives color to what else would be a monotony. 

Moreover, I could not prosecute my line of march without 
touching the appendages, — the olden time being the basis of 
my history. Hence the great and the small meet en passant. 

Every block had its variety, and reminiscence seemed to 
urge its claims ; but these very claims light up the picture, 
and show up men, manners and things of the past, and take 
their place on the page of history. 

But the mercantile community is in no way disparaged by 
the course. 

In regard to the merchants themselves, and their respective 
locations, they are as existent at the time specified. 

It may, however, be objected that this, that, or the other 



202 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

was here or there located ; truly so, but not within my com- 
pass of time. I might and I could have given a succes- 
sion to the various locations ; but my original plan for- 
bade the extension, and expediency frowned at an undue 
volume. 

In traversing the Wharves from north to south, I offer their 
identit}'-, at and about the time, as graphic ; seeing that mem- 
ory is confirmed not only by like collateral testimony, but by 
the artistic evidence of drafts of their various features, made 
more than fifty years ago. 

Again, the mercantile community that gave life to scenes 
and scenes to active life, is given as it then was ; and may show 
up to " Young America " the wit, the wisdom, the prudence, 
the prowess of its forefathers. 

History is an important tome to the world itself, else, 
whence the knowledge of any thing of the past ? Is it to pass 
into the mystic clouds of oblivion, or be shut up in the losom 
of antiquity? Is it to cease with its breath, and pass as 
though it ne'er had been ? I trow not. 

Philadelphia has not been a mere speck in the commercial 
horizon — not a mere dot on the map of geographical details. 
She had a proud bearing on the world of commerce ; her port 
was courted, caressed, and embraced by almost every nation, 
and was the very bosom of the nurture of commerce. Her 
merchants were men of courage and enterprise; nor were 
their operations merely speculative : their results, generally, 
were unmistakable evidences of well-digested plans and sound 
judgment. 

" Young America" presses onward, unmindful of the past, 
and, sad to say, untutored by the experience of her fathers ; 
she forgets or repudiates the intellectual wealth of her ances- 
tors, and seems proud of the golden bowl of her newly-dis 



PHILADELPHIA AliD HER MEECHANTS. 203 

tilled wisdom ; lier yesterday is her starting point, and her 
to-morrow the consummation of her projects. 

Not so, the fathers of the olden time — they gathered wis- 
dom as bees gather honey : and their hives were redolent of 
the sight and the savor of well-digested architectural genius, 
giving tone, dignity, and character to the field of their 
labors. 

Shall the early dignity of Philadelphia be evaporated in 
the fog of impetuous ambition, and our posterity bow the 
knee or shrink before a sister whose robes and flounces are 
the trimmings of fortuity? We, the remnant of the olden 
time, say. No ! We look back upon the proud bearing of our 
port, and say, No ! We claim perpetuity to the manes of our 
early merchants ; we fondle with the bouquet of their gather- 
ing, and pass it to posterity as a rich relic of the hey-day of 
Philadelphia, and present it to our rival, in token of remem- 
brance of our former superiority. 

The mercantile community, as here portrayed, has claims 
worthy of the pages of history ; and there let them be planted, 
and thence grow upon the mind, memory, and understanding 
of "Young America," until it chasten her haste, guide her 
footsteps, and qualify her wisdom. 

In all this, we would not shade the glory of our sister city, 
but rather, as a member of our confederacy, congratulate her 
upon the bountiful sunshine of her prosperity ; but we cannot 
forego the fact, that nature has been her alma mater^ and art 
the panderer to her thrift, and that the jointure has built her 
up a mighty city — whilst the glory of Philadelphia was rayed 
by the acumen, the courage, and the perseverance of our 
fathers, and warmed to the dignity due to a commercial port, 
independent of the natural solicitations of our neighbour. 

Neither would we detract from our mercantile community 



204 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

of tbe present day — iJiey live and act under a different regime; 
the influence of " Young America" elasticises their atmo- 
sphere, and spurs the heel at the expense of the head: lighting 
their path merely from the tr2:)s of the radii without consult- 
ing the brow of their source. 

We have good men and true amongst us, who, whilst some 
are estimable representatives of their ancestors, and would 
hand down to posterity the mercantile dignity of their fathers, 
others, not of the same spirit, suffer loss by a disregard of the 
more dignified platform of characteristic merchandising, and 
sink their skill in the minimum, instead of raising it to the 
maximum of mercantile dignity. 

The contrast between the present and the past, in regard 
to the commercial enterprise of Philadelphia's merchants, is 
certainly very severe ; and we of the senior class of her sons, 
cannot but lament and even weep over causes and effects. And 
although we are about to uncoil our mortal cordage, we are 
none the less sensitive of any disparagement of our foster 
home — nay, even more, our amour patri centres in our home- 
stead, and our proneness to review and fondle with the things 
of our youth becomes a text for our mental meanderings. 

Hence then a concentration of reflection, a gathering of 
happy recollections, and the incidental review that presses 
thought to speech, and speech to the intelligence that profits 
by the past, and shapes or qualifies the future. 

"With all this, I abjure the charge or suspicion of a fancy 
sketch, or a subterfuge of heavy time — that ingredient in 
human life is not mine — but 1 cannot deny my ardent love 
for ruminating over the green fields of my youth, rejuvenating 
in the pastures of reminiscence, and feeding upon the herbs 
that revive the spirits of wasting life as it wanes and dimin- 
ishes on the inclined plane of mortality. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MEECHANTS. 205 

A picture of the past is ever ana anon grateful to the eye 
of a senior. So to your author; and little in the world more 
to his taste, than the busy life that glistened his eye as he 
roved in the precinct that lit up the life of his city, and gave 
tone from its centre to the circumference of its influence. 

The picture is before you, and, to the best of my knowledge 
and belief, a truthful delineation. 

If, in some of my details, I have been more extensive than 
in others, they have been given as samples only of the prow- 
ess of the merchants of the day ; nothing eulogistic whatever 
is intended — there was a difference truly, but no disparage- 
ment ; but the whole together was a crown of glory to the 
community of our city. 

Times have changed, and circumstances have altered cases; 
our men and their manners are gone ; very few of the list 
remain. We hail the present — we salute the memory of the 
past ; and w^hilst our respectful tribute to their manes be their 
epitaph, let the bouquet of their career be a refreshing savor 
of the commercial dignity, the mercantile wealth, and the 
well deserved fame of Philadelphia and her merchants, as 
constituted fifty to seventy years ago ! 



APPENDIX. 




/.^u^ ^ :^/8-'^r~ 



APPENDIX. 

Jonathan Leedoni — Benjamin Jones, Jun. — Robert Oakley — John Craig — 
Nicholas Biddle — George Armroyd — John Coulter — Samuel W. Jones — 
Alexander J. Derbyshire— CAPTAIN DAVID MOFFAT— Thomas Pratt— 
Origin and Succession of the Firm of Yorke & Lippincott — Benjamin W. 
Richards — Treasuryship of the Pennsylvania Hospital, 1780 to 1859. 

If a Preface is necessary to inform the kindly patron of the 
intent and meaning of an author, and an Introduction a pre- 
lude to a prefatory apology for what he lias done, a Note 
en finale for what he has not done may be no less important, 
at least for his own benefit, to clear his skirts as he retires 
from his historical pursuit to the charm of freedom and rest 
from his labors, and passes his work to the critique of the 
historian, or the fastidiousness of the world's literati. 

In a retrospect of fifty to even eighty years perspective, 
memory must be severely taxed, and collateral testimony no 
less tested, to avert the plea of "errors and omissions ex- 
cepted" ; and here, although I flatter myself the former are 
" few and far between," the latter rise up in judgment against 
me, and call for their share of historical identity. And 
although I may still be at fault, they that present themselves 
have claims, and must be brought forth to resume their posi- 
tions in the mercantile life that gave tone to the early com- 
mercial prosperity of Philadelphia and her cheerful and 
lucrative port. 

14 (209) 



210 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

Amongst the missing in the body of the work, Jonathan 
Leedom was not the least of the mercantile spirits of his day, 
1805 and onward. 

He was located at ISTo, 182, on the east side of Front street, 
above Pine street — store through to Water street. 

He was a shipping merchant in good standing, engaged in 
the Liverpool trade, and at the same time and in the same 
place kept a wholesale iron store for many years after he 
ceased to be a shipowner, even until the time of his death: 
to wit, December 17, 1848, being then in his seventy-fourth 
year. He was born in Cheltenham, Bucks County. Mr, 
Leedom was a member of the Society of Friends, and was 
highly esteemed for his correct deportment. 

Here again a respectful recognition of Benjamin Jones, Jun., 
is due. 

Mr. Jones had his store and counting-house in the same 
building with Mr. Leedom. He, too, was a shipping merchant, 
engaged in the Liverpool and Bordeaux trade; a man highly 
esteemed for his integrity in all his business transactions. 

About the year 1836 he was chosen by our City Councils 
treasurer of the Girard trust, which office he held for several 
years. 

The memory of this gentleman links with that of the late 

■ venerable Joseph Sims, in whose counting-house he was 

brought up, was with him in the days of his prosperity, and 

served him and his creditors as assignee of his estate in the 

day of his adversity. 

Eobert Oakley, although not in this connection of locah'e, 
was a shipping merchant and shipowner, of and about 1802 ; 
he was also an occasional importer of Canton goods; his 
counting-house was No. 22 Dock street — his shipping, of 
course, contributed to the commercial life of the times. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS, 211 

John Craig, no less important to commercial life, had his 
counting-house at ISTo. 12 Dock street in'1799. 

He wag a shipping merchant of high standing, largely 
engaged in the Yera Cruz trade, particularly in the importa- 
tion of large quantities of specie (Spanish dollars) from 
Mexico. Mr. Craig prospered to vast possessions. 

He was the father-in-law of the late Nicholas Biddle, of 
whom I cannot forego the opportunity to say that he, ISTicholas 
Biddle, was a gentleman, a scholar, and a man of fine literary 
attainments; although unfortunate in misplaced popularity, 
where he might well have cried " Save me from my friends," 
political and social, if weighed in the balance would have 
been found more sinned against than sinning. 

George Armroyd was part and parcel of the commercial 
life of 1802, being in the St. Croix trade, an extensive im- 
porter of the finest sugar from that quarter — a house in good 
standing. His counting-house was at 109 South Water street, 
in 1802 ; but in 1805 was at No. 125 South Front street. 

John Coulter was another enterprising spirit of the early 
time. He was a shipping merchant of No. 210 South Water 
street, and was extensively engaged in the European and 
West India trade — a large importer and exporter of goods, 
wares, and merchandise. 

He was noted for industry, perseverance, and personal ap- 
plication to business, and was not afraid of work, and was 
prominent in commercial life from 1802 and onward. Mr, 
Coulter was also, at one period, a Director of the Bank of the 
United States of 1816. 

After his retirement from the busy scenes and labors of 
merchandising;, he retired to his farm near Germantown, and 
there, too, finished his course on the 16th day of December, 
1857, at the very ripe old age of nearly eighty-five years. 



212 PHILADELPHIA AKD HER MERCHANTS. 

The celebrated firm of Smitli & Eiclgway has been noticed 
in its proper place ; but subsequently, 1803, their apprentice 
and clerk became a " Co." to the firm : Samuel W. Jones being 
this junior partner. 

Afi;er the retirement of Mr. Eidgway, Mr. Jones was con- 
tinued as the partner of James Smith, under the firm of 
James Smith & Co., 1806, at No. 154 North Front street, and 
was an active and ef&cient spirit of the concern, helping it, 
doubtless, to a successful issue. 

They transacted a large and lucrative business, sending 
their vessels to foreign ports, particularly to Antwerp, where 
their old partner, Mr. Eidgway, had established himself as a 
merchant, acting also at the same time as American consul. 

Mr. Jones is yet our cotemporary ; who, although even 
now in his seventy-ninth year, shows up the force of his early 
day in the firmness and activity of his foot, and the clearness 
of a mind unclouded and unimpared by time ; and I greatly 
fear that very few of our rising generation will attain to such 
a desert and just tribute, due to him and many more of the 
olden time. 

In reference to this location, I note further that there wer6 
four first-class three-story brick houses on this lot, running 
south from Key's alley about eighty feet, of which Jacob 
Eidgway occupied the corner of Key's alley as No. 160; 
James Smith, his partner, next below. No. 158; George 
W. Morgan, No. 156, afterward of Arch street below Tenth ; 
and Smith, Eidgway & Co. had their counting-house at No. 
154 — all of which were destroyed in the conflagration of that 
quarter in 1850. 

Alexander J. Derbyshire still perpetuates the memory of 
Timothy Paxson, whom he served as apprentice and clerk, 
and even now succeeds him in the same business and on the 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 213 

same spot, upon which he erected an extensive store, with very 
handsome and capacious counting-house accommodations. 

To return to the olden time, however. Memory challenges 
an active and notorious spirit of commercial and maritime 
life. 

CAPTAIN DAYID MOFFAT, after a term of some years 
in mercantile pursuits, — first, in 1805, located at No. 28 
"Walnut street, and afterward, in connection with Thomas 
Burke and James Caldwell of No. 3 South Wharves, in the 
Spanish trade — distinguished himself greatly in the war with 
Great Britain in 1812, as a terror to the merchantmen of the 
enemy. 

He commanded the fleetest privateers out of the United 
States, and scoured the coast of Great Britain to its great 
annoyance and loss, by his frequent captures of her merchant 
ships. 

He was a man of indomitable courage and untiring perse- 
verance, and was renowned for his skill and success and gene- 
rosity as a privateersman. 

After his privateering, Capt, Moffat was Master Warden 
of the port of Philadelphia for many years in succession, ap- 
pointed by various Governors of the State of Pennsylvania, 
which of&ce he held until his decease in Philadelphia, on the 
1st of May, 1838, at an advanced age. 

But it was not all commerce that built up Philadelphia : 
there were active adventurers from the counting-house on the 
wharf to the environs of the city, compassed by post and rail 
fences. 

Thomas Pratt, in the freshness of his youth, struck from 
the desk to the open commons to invest inactive capital and 
act a pioneer in improvements of our city. 

In 1805 he took up the southwest corner of Eleventh and 



214 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHAlSrTS. 

Chestnut streets, from Samuel W. Fisher, then guarded by 
a post-and-rail fence, at six dollars ground-rent per foot for 
sixty feet on Chestnut street by two hundred and thirty-five 
feet to George street, and built three three- story brick houses 
on Chestnut street and seven on Eleventh street — this was 
entirely out of town at that time. He tells me there were but 
two brick houses between that and the Schuylkill, and they 
were inside of the southwest corner of Twelfth and Chestnut 
streets ; they stood back considerably from the line and were 
enclosed by a board fence. 

Again in 1808, the embargo crippling our commerce, his 
enterprise sought vent in another purchase of fifty feet of 
ground opposite the Academy of Fine Arts, from Thomas 
Biddle, also at sis dollars per foot ground-rent, the lot also 
two hundred and thirty-five feet to George street ; here he 
erected two large mansions of twenty-five feet each, which 
he afterward sold, one to the celebrated Commodore Truxton, 
and the other to our late fellow-citizen, Thomas Hale, of the 
popular firm of McBwen, Hale & Davidson, of Dock street, 
brokers. 

Two years after the above purchase, the adjoining lots 
westward, were sold at fifteen dollars per foot ground-rent. 

Mr. Pratt is even yet in the comfortable enjoyment of a 
green old age, being of sound niind, memory and under- 
standing, taking his daily walk nonchalant of any extraordi- 
nary waste of time's efforts, although iu his eighty-seventh 
year. 

The firm of Yorke k Lippincott, auctioneers, has been 
noticed in its proper place; but as it was the most popular 
concern of the day, it may not be uninteresting to memori- 
alize its origin and succession. 



PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 215 

Peter Benson was wliat was then, 1797, called a Vendue 
Master, and held forth at No. 74 South' Third street. 

In 1799 he associated with him Samuel Yorke, who had 
been brought up in the business by Eichard Footman, auc- 
tioneer, at ISTo. 65 South Front street in 1793, and the firm 
in 1799 was Benson & Yorke, at No. 39 North Front street. 

Mr. Benson retired, and Samuel Yorke conducted the busi- 
ness alone, at No. 41 North Front street, 1802. In 1805 
Joshua Lippincott was the partner of Mr. Yorke ; and for 
several years the firm was Yorke & Lippincott, at No. 51 
North Front street. 

The decease of Mr. Yorke gave place to John Humes, and 
Humes & Lippincott continued the business as above. Mr 
Humes retired, and the firm changed to Joshua & William 
Lippincott, by the association of "William, the brother of 
Joshua. This firm was succeeded by Lippincott & Eichards 
— Benjamin W. Eichards, the new associate, being the son-in- 
law of Joshua Lippincott: and here ends that succession. Mr. 
Eichards afterward pursued the business in Front near Chest- 
nut, in company with Joseph Bispham, under the firm of 
Eichards & Bispham, where in time the succession in that oc- 
cupation ceased, and Benjaman W. Eichards was subsequently 
elected Mayor of the city — a very gentlemanly municipal 
magistrate. 

The above business firms were in good standing from first 
to last, eminent in business tact, and stood most prominent in 
popularity and patronage as auctioneers. 

In the succession of the Treasuryship of the Pennsylvania 
Hospital, I omitted the last link of the chain in its proper 
place. And an unbroken descent of an important trust in the 
same family, being of no common occurrence, I take occasion 
here to repeat the fact, and add the link — 



216 PHILADELPHIA AND HER MERCHANTS. 

Mordecai Lewis, Treasurer, - - - 1780 to 1799, 19 years. 
Joseph S. Lewis, " ... 1799 to 1826, 27 " 

Samuel M. Lewis, " ... 1826 to 1841, 15 " 

John T. Lewis, " the grand- 

son of Mordecai, and present in- 
cumbent, . - - . 1841 to 1859, 18 " 
Shows a succession of seventy-nine years in the direct line of 
the same family ! 

As further matter of history I add, that the above Mordecai 
Lewis was, in his early day, the partner of the celebrated 
William Bingham, whose mansion and open grounds once 
beautified the neighborhood of Third and Spruce, now trans- 
formed and transferred to the business world by Joseph 
Harrison, Jun., and others. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

STEREOTYPED BT GEORGE CHARLES, 

PRINTED BY KING & BAIRD, 

607 SANSOM STREET. 



PEEFIX TO THE SUBSCRIPTION LIST. 



It was a custom of tlie olden time to append to almost 
every Literary or Historical work, "The Names of Sub- 
scribers." Fashion or fancy, however, seems to have plead 
the custom from its usual page, and left the patron untold of 
liberality, and even to sleep in the vacuum of oblivion. 

With a truce to the idea, my emotions seem to forbid the 
omission, seeing that a full measure of gratitude is due to the 
kindly recognition of my efforts, and the highly respectable 
patronage that ensued. 

Unwilling to be derelict of grateful considerations, I cannot 
pass the page that offers its services to perpetuate the kindly 
regard to an humble author, and the author's grateful return 
for the grant to his plea. 

But, whilst in doing this, an apology will be due to those 
who do not appear — and this because their names have not 
been returned in time for this issue — another may be impor- 
tant to many whose retiring modesty would as willingly have 
shrunk from the notoriety of a subscribtion list. 

Let the one however be assured that my thanks are no less 
rife in the omission, and the other be sought to sink their 
demurrer in the unfeigned assurance of unintentional offense 
of a G-RATEFUL Author! 

(217) 



SUBSCEIPTION LIST. 



Abbott, Greorge. 
Adams' Express. 
Allen, T. W. 
Allinson, William. 
Anderson, William Y. 
Anspacli, J., Jr. 
Ashliurst, Richard. 
Ashhurst, John. 
Ash, J. P. 
Ashley & Sharpe. 
Audenried, Lewis. 

Backns, F. R. 
Bacon, Alexander. 
Bacon, Franklin. 
Bacon, J. K. 
Badger, William. 
Baker, Abraham. 
Baker, Alfred H. 
Baker, Charles H. 
Baker, Isaac F. 
Bancker, Charles N. 
Barclay, A. C. 
Barcroft, S. B. 
Baumgardner, J. G. 
Beck, Henry Paul. 
Beck, James N. 
Bell, John. 
Benner, H. L. .8 
Biddle, Edward C. 
Biddle, William. 
Binns, John. 
Bishop, Charles F. 
Bohlen, John. 
Boiler, Henry J. 



Bond, S. Montgomery. 
Borie, C. & H. 
Bousquet, Peter. 
Bradford, William. 
Bradford, B. Rush. 
Brown, David S. 
Browne, Benneville. 
Brooke, Stephen H. 
Burton, John. 
Bussier, Joseph B. 
Bute, Charles L. 
Butcher, John. 
Butler, William S. 

Campbell, John H., Esq. 
Carrigan, C. W. 
Carver, Samuel. 
Carstairs, James. 
Carson, H. L. 
Carson, J., M.D. 
Cetti, A. C. 
Chamecen, U. 
Cheyney, Charles H. 
Chester, Lewis. 
Christ, Jay & Hess. 
Christian, S. J. 
Chur, A. T. 
Clark, Edward L. 
Clark, Joseph. 
Claghorn, John W. 
Claghorn, James L. 
Claghorn, William C. 
Claghorn & Fryer. 
Clothier, J. H. 
Coates, Benjamin. 

(218) 



subsceiptiojst list. 



219 



Coffin, Lewis. 
Connarroe, George M. 
Conrad, Harry. 
Cooper, C. Campbell, M.D. 
Cooper, Parham & Work. 
Cook, Jay. 
Cooley, A. B. 
Cope, F. R. 
Cornelius, Robert. 
Coulter, S. 
Craig, William. 
Cresson, Charles M. 
Cresson, John C. 
Cresson, William P. 
Cregar, P. A. 
Crissy, James. 
Cross, Edward H. 
Cross, Michael H. 
Curran, Lewis, M.D. 
Cuyler, Theodore, Esq. 

Da Costa, John C. 
Dale, Edward C. 
Dammond Raymond. 
Darrach, William, M.D. 
Darrach, Thomas B. 
Darley, W. H. W. 
Darling, John A. 
Davis, Daniel S. 
Dawson, T. Russel, 
Dawson, Mordecai L. 
Day, G. W. 
De Brot, John. 
Degrange, Stephen A. 
Denckla, A. H. 
Denckla, H. Albert. 
Denckla, F. W. 
Denckla, Paul. 
Denckla, C. Paul. 
Dennison, David W. 
Dennison, J. Harry. 
Derbyshire, Alex. J. 
De Schweinitz, Rev. Ed. A. 
Ditzler, William U. 
Doll, George, & Co, 
Drexel, A. J. 
Dreer, F. W. 
Dulles & Cope. 
Duudas, James, Esq. 



Dutilh, Charles. 

Earp, Thomas. 
Earp, Theodore. 
Elliot, Isaac. 
Elliott, James. 
Esler, George, Jr. 
Esler, L. H. 
Evans, Thomas W. 
Evans, James R. 
Everly, William A. 

Fell, Franklin. 
Fenimore, J. L. 
Ferguson, Bryant. 
Fitler, A. 
Fling, William B. 
Flood, Samuel F. 
Folwell, T: G. 
Fontanges, P. F. 
Ford, John M. 
Fraley, F. 
Franciscus, A. H. 
Fry, John A. 
Fryer, George. 
Fuller, Oliver. 
Furness, Brinley & Co. 

Gaillard, Edward, Jr. 
Gans, Leiberman & Co. 
Gaw, Alexander G. 
Gaw, Henry L. 
Geisse, William & Sons. 
Gerhart, Isaac. 
Getze, J. A. 
Gibbons & Cantadore. 
Gibbous, James S. 
Gilbert, Henry R. 
Gillespie, Thomas L. 
Gillespie, William. 
Godley, Henry. 
Godley, Jesse. 
Godfrey, Benjamin G. 
Goff, J. W. 
Goodwin, Thomas F. 
Gordon, James. 
Gould, J. E. 
Gratz, Edward. 
Grant, Samuel. 



220 



SUBSCRIPTION LIST. 



Greiner & Harkness. 
Grigg, John. 
Griffiths, Mary. 
Gross, George J. 
Guillou, Rene. 
Guliger, William. 

Hagner, Charles V. 
Hallowell, Joshua L. 
Hallowell, William P. 
Hamm, P. E. 
Hand, Thomas C. 
Hand, James C. 
Hart, William H. 
Harrison, Joseph. 
Hazard, Erskine. 
Helffenstein, Emanuel. 
Hemphil, John. 
Henry, Alexander, Esq. 
Hensel, Daniel. 
Henderson, George A. 
Herline, Edward. 
Heyl, Theodore C. 
Heiskel, Wm. B., Esq. 
Hill, Marshall. 
Hildeburn, J. H. 
Hockley, John. 
Homer, Benjamin, Jr. 
Hopper, Edward, Esq. 
Horner, Benjamin C. 
Horstman, Sigmund. 
Horstman, W. J. 
Hovey, Franklin S. 
Howell, H. C. 
Hutchinson, E. R.. 
Hutchins, Mason. 

Jacobsen, Henry G., Esq., Bait. 

Jackson, Charles C. 

Janney, S. M. 

Jayne, E. C. 

Jeanes, Thomas. 

Jeanes, J. T. & S. 

Johnson, R. S. 

Johnes, George W. 

Jones, Joseph. 

Jones, Samuel W. 

Jordan, Francis. 

Jordan, John. 



Justice, George M. 

Keene, James W. 
Keller, J. B. 
Kemper, J. L. A 
Kent, William C. 
Kern, Horatio G. 
Kibbin, J. W. 
Kimber, Thomas, Jr. 
King, D. Rodney, 
King, Francis. 
Kirkham, William. 
Kline, J. N". 
Krug, P. y. & Co. 

Lancaster, J. B. 
Latimer, Thomas, Esq. 
Lawson, John L. 
Lee, R. M., Esq. 
Lee, J. 

Leedom, B. J. 
Lehman, E. W. 
Lei per, Wm. J. 
Lennig, C. & F. 
Leslie, C. M. 
Levy, L. J. & Co. 
Lewis, Edwin N. 
Lewis, Henry, Jr. 
Lewis, Joseph W. 
Lewis, John T. 
Lewis, Saunders. 
Lewis, W. D., Esq. 
Lewis, Walter H. 
Lex, Charles E., Esq. 
Lex, Charles F. 
Link, John. 

Lippincott, J. B. & Co. 
Littel S., M.D. 
Littel, A. R. 
Livezy, John. 
Lodge, Jonathan. 
Lueders, Thomas L. 

Maenel & Scheppler. 

Magee, James. 

Marston, John, Capt. U. S. N. 

Martin, A. 

Martin, James. 

Mason, James. 



SUBSCRIPTION LIST. 



221 



Masson, Charles H. 

Massey, Charles, Jr. 

Massey, R. V. 

Mann, William. 

Maxfield, Joseph. 

Mellizet, F. W. 

Merrick, S. V. 

Messchert, M. H. 

Miller, William. 

Mitcheson, M. J., Esq. 

Mooney, Amos M. 

Morrison, Mrs. A. D. 

Morrel, Schroeder & Ferguson. 

Morrel & Stokes. 

Morrel, Thomas. 

Moss, A. A. 

Moss, E. L. 

Moss, Eli T. 

Moss, Joseph L. 

Moss, Lucien. 

Musser, William. 

Myers, John B. 

McAllister, John. 
McAllister, John A. 
McAllister, Thomas H. 
McCrea, John. 
McKibbou, W. C. 

Needles, Caleb H. 
Needles, E. M. 
Needles, J. A. 
Needles, William N. 
Newbold, William H. 
Newell, William. 
Newland, Edward. 
Norris Thaddeus. 

Ogden, Charles J. 
O'Neal, John L. 

Page, Washington. 
Parrish, Dillwyn. 
Parrish, George. 
Parker, John H. 
Patterson, Joseph. i 

Patterson, Jonathan. 
Patterson, Gen. Robert. 
Feabody, Edward G. 



Pearson, Davis. 
Pennock, Abraham L. 
Patterson, Thomas R. 
Petit, Edgar E. 
Philler, George, Jr. 
Phillips, B. 
Phillips & Brother. 
Potter, Alfred R. 
Poulson, Charles A. 
Price, Eli K., Esq. 
Price, Joseph. 
Price, Joseph N. 
Price, J. M. P. 
Price, Richard. 
Price, Richard, Jr. 
Price, J. Sergeant, Esq. 
Price, Stephen S. 
Purves, Wm. 

Randall, A. L. 
Randall, J. H., Esq. 
Rasin, Warner M. 
Rednor, Jos. 
Rednor, Lewis H. 
Reed & Co. 
Reed, R. S. 
Reed, Wm. J. 
Rehn, Caspar L. 
Rehn, Wm. L. 
Reigel, Jacob. 
Reneker, John. 
Repplier, John G. 
Rice, John. 
Richards, Benj. W. 
Richardson, Charles. 
Richardson, Richard. 
Ritchie, Craig D., Esq. 
Ritter, Benj. J. 
Ritter, Miss Mary. 
Roberts, David. 
Roberts, Edward. 
Robinson, A. S. 
Robinson, Abraham. 
Robinson, Thos. A. 
Rodman, Lewis, M.D. 
Rorer, Albert. 
Ross, John. 
Roux, Julien. 
Rugan, Charles. 



222 



SUBSCRIPTION LIST. 



Rulon, John W. 
Rumsey, John. 
Rush, John. 
Rutter, L. E. H. 

Salomon, D 

Samuel, David. 

Schaeffer, W. L. 

Schott, James. 

Scott, Charles L 

Sharp, John. 

Sharpe, J. L. 

Sharpless, Brothers. 

Sherrerd, Henry D. 

Shoemaker, Benjamin H. 

Shoemaker, Robert. 

Shuff & Wernwag. 

Slade, Alfred. 

Sleeper, N. 

Smiley, T. T. 

Smith, Aubrey H., Esq. 

Smith, Beaton. 

Smith, Charles S. 

Smith, Daniel, Jr. 

Smith, Edward 0. 

Smith, Francis Gurney, Esq. 

Smith, George K. 

Smith, Harrison. 

Smith, James B. 

Smith, James S., Esq. 

Smith, Joseph P. 

Smith, J. Fraley. 

Smith, Jacob R. 

Smith, Richard S. 

Smith, Thomas D., Esq. 

Smith, Thomas M. 

Smith, T. 

Smith, William S. 

Southworth, D. P. 

Steiner, J. P. & Co. 

Stevenson & Bowen. 

Stewart, W. S. 

Stoddart, Curwen. 

Stokes, John. 

Stotesbury, Thomas P. 

Stroud, W. S., M.D. 

Strawbridge, George. ' 

Sturgis, Zadock. 

Stewart & Brothers. 



Suddards, Rev. William. 
Sweeney, Thomas W. 
Swift, Edwin, Esq. 
Syz, John & Co. 

Taylor, William Bankson. 

Taylor, John D. 

Thackara, B. 

Thouron, Brothers, Despray. 

Thouron, Brothers, Despray, N. Y 

Thomas, John. 

Thomas, John W. 

Thompson, H. C. 

Thompson, William D. 

Thompson, William R. 

Thompson, J. Edgar. 

Tomliuson, Joseph. 

Townsend, H. C. 

Townsend, J. B. 

Trautwine, J. C. 

Traquair, James. 

Troth, William P. 

Trotter, Joseph H. 

Trotter, Edward H. 

Vaux, Richard. 
Yaux, William S. 
Vogdes, John R. 
Vogdes, William. 

Wagner, Charles M. 
Wagner, Tobias. 
Wainwright, Jonathan. 
Wainwright, William. 
Walter, Edwin. 
Walker, J. R. 
Wannamaker, Charles. 
Warnock, William. 
Warner, David M. 
Warwick, E. 
Wattson, Thomas B. 
Watson, Charles. 
Watson, Thomas, Jr. 
Weaver, George J. 
Weiner, Heinrich. 
Webb, William. 
Welsh, Isaac. 
Welsh, John. 
Welsh, John, Jr. 



SUBSCRIPTION LIST. 



223 



Welsh, John R. 
Welsh, Samuel. 
Welsh, W., Jr. 
West, Francis, M.D. 
West, James. 
Wetherill, Dr. William. 
Wharton, C. M. 
Wharton, Francis A. 
Wharton, William, Jr. 
Wheeler, John H., Esq. 
Whittle, John M. 
White, John J. 
Wicht & Lankeman. 
Wight, Andrew, Jr. 
Williams, Charles. 
Williams, Charles B. 
Williams, Isaac. 
Williamson, Passmore. 
Williamson, Thomas. 
Wilstach, William P. 



Wilmer, Cannell & Co. 
Wilkins, J. R. 
Wilcox, W. T. 
Wilson, Stewart. 
Wiler, William. 
Wilhelm, Frederick. 
Winterbottom, H. 
Wistar, Mifflin, M.D. 
Wolf, Thomas. 
Wood, George B. 
Wood, Richard D. 
Woodward, James S. 
Wucherer, J. R. 

Yard, Charles W. 
Yardley, Samuel. 
Yarnall, William. 
York, William. 

Ziegler, George K. 



ERRATA 



Wharves, South to Pine, for J. Gerard Koch, read Koch. 

Wharves, Chestnut to Market, for E. Beck, read P. Beck. 

Water street. Market to Arch, for Smith & Benceicay, read 
Smith & Ridgexuay. 

Water street. Market to Arch, for Bohinson & Paul, read Robe- 
son & Paul. 

Water street, Race to Vine, for D. & Y. Thumm, read Thunn. 



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